Besieged

Chapter 13

Sir William Devers survived his wound, but he would never walk again. As soon as it was feasible he was moved from the Reverend Samuel Steen's house in Maguire's Ford back to Lisnaskea. He was only in his mid-twenties, and as he lay in his bed, or sat in the chair that had been fashioned for him, he grew angrier and angrier. He wanted to hold the Catholics responsible for his infirmity, but they had not shot at him. He had been shot from behind, and the Catholics of Maguire's Ford had been facing him. Still, Sir William Devers reasoned, if they had not been at Maguire's Ford then neither would he have been there, and he would not be the invalid he was now. Who had shot him he did not know, nor did anyone else seem to know.

And so he did hold the Catholics answerable for his helpless state, and encouraged by his wife and mother, plotted a revenge he would never be able to carry out against the Catholics in general, against his half-brother, Kieran, and against Fortune, for he reasoned, had she never come to Ulster, none of this would have ever happened. It was all their fault.

No one came to visit Sir William and his family. The servants gave notice but for a few. He was condemned, it seemed, to spend the rest of his days at Mallow Court with only his mother and his wife for civilized company. Sir William Devers took to drinking anything that would free him from his pain and his boredom.

At Maguire's Ford Autumn Leslie, born on All Hallows' Eve, the Samhein celebration of the ancient Celtic races, thrived. Jasmine knew instinctively that this was absolutely her last baby, and so she nursed her daughter devotedly, declining a wetnurse. Fortune adored the baby, and spent much of her time with Autumn and their mother.

"She is so sweet," Fortune sighed. "I should so like a little girl like her… one day. I know this is not the right time, Mama."

"If Kieran goes alone to the New World," Jasmine suggested, "perhaps you should be with child then. That way I could be with you when the child was born. Then when it is safe for you to join your husband, the baby will be old enough to travel with you, but wait until we return to England before you make that decision."

Fortune sighed again. She wanted a normal life like her mother and her sister, India, had. A home, a husband, babies, and peace. Why could she not have these things? But she knew the answer to her own unspoken questions. She had married a man whose faith was not acceptable. They would have to make a new life in a place where his faith and hers were acceptable. But when? Why must it all take so long? She cuddled her baby sister closely, marveling that everything about Autumn was so perfect. Her dark hair with its faint auburn tints, her eyes which were beginning to hold distinct glints of green even at two months of age when she was baptized by the Reverend Samuel Steen, her half-sister, and brother, Adam, standing as her godparents.

Christmas and Twelfth Night had come and gone. The winter had set in hard. Maguire's Ford was quiet, and there was no longer any threat of violence from Lisnaskea, the excesses of the previous October having drained all choler from them. To Kieran's delight there were several families who had decided that they would like to go with him and Fortune to the New World, including young Bruce Morgan. They saw the opportunities available to them there despite the dangers involved. The older folk, of course, could not find it in their hearts to leave Ulster. They had always survived somehow, and would continue to do so, they reasoned.

January gave way to February, and then February gave way to March. The green hillsides were dotted with the white coats of the lambs born the month before. The duke began to make plans to leave Maguire's Ford for Scotland. They would depart the estate the fifteenth day of May, the day after Adam Leslie's fifteenth birthday. The two Leslie sons had settled quite well into Maguire's Ford. The Reverend Steen had been engaged as their tutor. The king's patent was expected before they departed, and Jasmine had already had the estate boundaries redrawn, dividing the land equally between the two boys. When Duncan turned sixteen in another four years, a house would be built for him on a site he had already chosen.

March departed, and halfway through April the royal warrant arrived, transferring Maguire's Ford from Lady Jasmine Leslie, the duchess of Glenkirk, to her sons, Adam and Duncan Leslie. Each boy was gifted with a peerage from the king since their father was a duke. Adam became Baron Leslie of Erne Rock. Duncan became Baron Leslie of Dinsmore, which meant from the hillfort, the site of his future dwelling. A copy of the document was posted publicly in the village square, and Kieran took the second copy to Mallow Court to show his half-brother and his stepmother.

Jane Devers, looking worn, greeted him sourly. "You were told not to come here again," she snapped at him as he entered the house.

"It will be my last visit, madame, I promise you. Where is William? Take me to him, and fetch your daughter-in-law too."

Jane Leslie brought her stepson to the rear parlor of the house where he found William Devers seated in a padded chair.

"Kieran!" William's voice was almost welcoming.

"I am sorry to intrude unannounced upon you, Willy," Kieran said, "but I feared you wouldn't see me if I sent ahead. I have brought you a copy of the royal patent for Maguire's Ford." He handed the document to the younger man. "You will note it transfers ownership of the estate, which is to be divided equally between Adam and Duncan Leslie, now Sir Adam and Sir Duncan. There can no longer be any doubt as to the disposition of Erne Rock and its lands. They are in the hands of two Protestant milords whose tutor is Reverend Steen."

"But Maguire is still there," William said, "isn't he?" His tone was now sour.

"Aye, and he will be until he dies," Kieran said. "He causes no trouble, and he's a genius with the horses, Willy. He is needed."

"He's a Catholic," came the stubborn reply.

"His masters aren't. Do not trifle with Glenkirk's boys, Willy. Scotland is not that far away, and James Leslie will kill you."

"I'd be better off dead," William Devers replied bitterly. "I cannot feel anything below my waist, Kieran. The physician says the child Emily Anne will shortly have is the only child we will ever have. What if it is not a son? I sit here all day long with only Mama and my wife for company. Their cheerfulness and their nobility sicken me. The physician informs me, other than the fact I am dead in my legs and my manhood, I am as healthy as a horse and shall live a long life. Are you pleased to hear that, brother? I shall probably outlive you."

"I am sorry, Willy, but the truth is you have no one to blame for your situation but yourself. Oh, the Lisnaskea Protestants gladly followed you once you, your mother, and the late Dundas had fired them up, but afterward they deserted you. Seeing you reminds them of what they did to their neighbors and friends just because they followed Catholicism. And each time they see you, they are reminded of what you did to our half-sister, Aine Fitzgerald. I am truly sorry for you, Willy. Yet I cannot help but think you got exactly what you deserved."

"You weep for a whore's brat, but not for your own brother!" he snarled. "I'm glad our father died else he might have given you back your inheritance, you bastard!"

"I wouldn't have had it, Willy. Ulster is a place of sorrow for me. I do not belong here. You may have Mallow Court for yourself, and your heirs, and good luck to you, little brother."

"What is it you want?" Jane Devers and her daughter-in-law entered the room. The voice was Emily Anne's. She was very full with her child, and Kieran wondered if it was a son, or a daughter, and if he would ever learn that fact. The child looked ready to be born.

"Good day, madame," Kieran said pleasantly, and he bowed to her. "I have brought a copy of the royal patent with its seal for Maguire's Ford so you may see the legal and official transfer of the estate from my mother-in-law to her two younger Leslie sons is complete." He took the document from William's hands, and passed it to Emily Anne and Lady Jane. "When you have properly perused it, I shall take it back. I have also come to bid you farewell. My wife, the Leslies, and I will be departing for Scotland in mid-May. It is unlikely that I shall ever return to Ulster."

The two women read the warrant carefully, finally returning it to Kieran.

"She was not lying, Lady Jasmine, when she said she was giving Maguire's Ford to her sons," Jane Devers said, sounding surprised.

"No," he replied, "she was not lying." Then, there being nothing else left for him to say to any of them, he kissed the women's hands, shook his brother's reluctant hand, and departed his childhood home for the last time. At the crest of the hill he turned to look at it a final time. He would not see it ever again.

At the end of April word was brought to Kieran that his sister-in-law had prematurely delivered a female child who would be christened Emily Jane. The child was healthy, and the mother had survived her ordeal with courage. Kieran Devers sent the niece he was unlikely to ever see a small silver spoon and cup. He had sent to Belfast for the items several months ago, and they had only recently come.

"Poor William," Fortune observed. "But at least they have a child. Do you think it is time for us to have one, sir? We must try harder, I fear. You have neglected me shamefully these past weeks." Fortune was soaking in the large oaken tub before the fireplace. The tub took up much of the room that the bed did not.

He chuckled at her, stripping his own clothing off as he prepared to join her. She was adorably tempting, her red hair piled atop her head, her cheeks rosy with the heat of the bath. "We must take a fine tub like this to the New World," he said with a grin. "I am willing to give up much to find a land where we may live in peace, free of prejudice, but I do not intend giving up our baths, madame."

Fortune giggled. "Thank heavens we are not Puritans. I hear they consider bathing a great sin of the flesh. Some of the gentlemen I have met at court are not pleasant to be near. Get in gently, Kieran, else you'll splash water on the floor."

He waggled his thick black eyebrows at her as he slid effortlessly into the tub. "Did you not know, madame, I am part silky?"

"What is a silky?" she asked, curious.

"A man who can take the shape of a seal. Or perhaps a seal who can take the shape of a man. Or so the legends go."

"Ahh," she said, and she reached beneath the water with her hand to tease him. "And just when do you become a seal, sir? And if you become a seal, how shall we ever conceive a child?"

He felt himself hardening as her provocative words taunted him, and the brush of her nipples on his chest inflamed his desires. "Would you like to see how a silky mates?" he goaded her wickedly. He turned her about, and cupped her breasts in his hands, his thumbs tantalizing the hard little nipples. Fondling her he nuzzled at her, nipping at her earlobes, and the nape of her neck. "The silky," he said, "exhibits dominance over his mate."

"Does he?" Fortune returned, grinding her buttocks suggestively into his groin. "Just how does he do this, sir?"

He didn't answer. Instead his arm encircled her waist, drawing them even closer. A hand slipped beneath the water to find the little jewel of her womanhood which he teased unmercifully.

"Silkies don't have those, or such naughty fingers," she gasped.

"But their human mates do," he reasoned. He was afire with his lust, and he knew she was too. The oaken tub was wide enough for what he wanted to do, and so he bent her forward until her face was almost touching the surface of the water. Then grasping her hips in his big hands he slipped into her female passage in a manner in which he had not previously taken her.

Fortune gasped, surprised, and would have fallen into the water face first had he not been holding her. He began to move with a slow, almost stately rhythm within her, his long, thick manhood stroking the walls of her sensitive passage, stoking the fires of her own hunger for him. She caught the cadence of his movements almost immediately, and moved with him. Her head was spinning with the pleasure he was affording her. Her breath was coming in short, hard pants that sent ripples across the water before her face.

"This," he ground out in her ear, "is how the silky mates! He covers his female's body with his own, and takes her." He thrust deeper, and Fortune murmured with her open delight.

"Ahhh, Kieran, yes!" she encouraged him, wiggling her bottom into him. His own breath in her ear was hot, and fast.

"Oh, witch, you have unmanned me, and I am not yet satisfied!" he complained to her. His juices had burst forth, but he was still hard, and filled with a hungry lust. He withdrew from her, and exited the tub, pulling her behind him. Flinging her upon their bed he entered her once again, thrusting, thrusting, thrusting, until Fortune was desperately stuffing her fist in her mouth to stifle her cries.

The room was cold, yet she was burning up. If he could not get enough of her, she could not get enough of him now. Wrapping her long legs about him she drew him closer, her teeth sinking into his muscled shoulder, her nails raking the flesh of his back. "More, damn it! More!" she commanded him, and he complied, pushing himself as far as he could into her eager body. She screamed softly as their possession of each other became so intense she thought she was dying, would die from the extreme excess of pleasure she was now experiencing. The world dissolved behind her eyes, shattering into an explosion of color, and then she was soaring, soaring. As quickly she was falling into the sweet darkness that arose to claim them both from their excesses.

When she was in control of herself again some minutes passed. She became aware that he was bathing her gently with the love cloths. She watched him through half-closed eyes. "I have taught you well," she murmured softly.

He looked at her, his eyes dark with unconcealed passion. "Now, 'tis I who wants more, Fortune." He knelt over her, and taking his manhood in his hand, he rubbed it against her lips. Back and forth, back and forth, and then her little tongue shot from between those tempting lips, and began to lick at him. "Yes, my poppet, that's it," he encouraged her as his manhood began to tingle in anticipation. She opened her mouth now, not protesting at all as he guided himself in, and sighed deeply when she began to nurse upon him, at first tentatively, and then more strongly. "Ah, God, Fortune, 'tis sweet." He began to harden and swell until he more than filled her dainty mouth. Slowly he withdrew himself from the hot, wet cavity.

Fortune was trembling with her own desire now. What they had done had been incredibly exciting for her. She wondered if other women serviced their husbands in such a manner. Her breasts felt hard and aching, as if they would burst. Her pleasure place was already wet with her juices, and so filled with sensation it almost burned. She gasped when her husband slid down her body, and spreading her open brought her legs over his shoulders so he might service her as she had him. "Ohh yesssss!" she breathed, encouraging him. "Please!"

She was all musk and honey. Hot and slick, and so eager. Her little jewel was swollen and visibly throbbing. He touched it with the tip of his facile tongue, and she shrieked with its sensitivity. Now he played with it, flicking his tongue back and forth while she writhed and moaned with her rising pleasure until the first wave of her lust burst. It was then he entered her body, pushing slowly inside her as her legs wrapped about him once again. "Wanton, little witch," he taunted her, his love lance flashing back and forth with increasing speed. "I love you!" His lips found her, and he kissed her hungrily.

His mouth bruised hers but Fortune didn't care. Their passion was incredible, and unlike anything she had experienced with him before. "You are so randy, my husband," she told him. "I hope you will not change as the years go by. Ah! Ahh! Ahhhhhh!" The pleasure was rising, rising, rising, and then it burst again leaving her shaken with her joy and delight. "I love you too, my darling!" she told him as she yanked the coverlet over them.

They awoke again to the glowing light of a spring dawn coming soft, and faintly golden into their chamber. The fire had long since gone out, the great oak tub blocking whatever warmth it might have provided had it been ablaze. Fortune sneezed, and then she sneezed again. Her husband crawled, swearing softly, from the bed, going across the room to push the great oak tub from before the fireplace, but there was little room. He knelt, and poked among the coals, but their life had been long extinguished. Kieran sneezed.

"Merde!" He swore more volubly now. "I think I am catching an ague."

"I know I am," she responded. "Can't you get the fire going?"

"I'll have to go down to the hall and fetch some live coals, for these are dead." He sneezed a second and third time.

Fortune couldn't help herself. She chuckled aloud, and then as quickly explained to her aggrieved-looking spouse. "I think there is a lesson in this, Kieran. Do not make love wet, and then sleep in a damp bed on a chilly spring night. I think we had best get some clothing on, and then go down to the hall to get warm. The servants will take care of the chamber, and empty the tub for us, but I could use some oat stir-about, and some hot mulled cider, sir."

"I concur," he said. Then a twinkle lit his eyes. "But 'twas a grand evening's entertainment we had, my lusty wife, was it not?"

Fortune laughed aloud.

April came to an end, and their time in Ulster was growing short. Kieran had gathered several Catholic families as well as individual men and women who were willing to leave their homeland and go to the New World. There were fourteen men. Most were farmers, but for Bruce Morgan, who had been his father's apprentice and was a good blacksmith. There was also a cooper, a tanner, a shoemaker, two weavers, two fishermen, and a female physician, Mistress Happeth Jones, who came from Enniskillen. She had been driven out by her Protestant neighbors who suggested she might be a witch. Before they might act on their assumption, Mistress Jones had packed her belongings and fled to Maguire's Ford. Mistress Jones had no declared faith, but she had heard that in Maguire's Ford there was more tolerance than in the rest of Ulster, and so she had come.

"Do you practice witchcraft?" Kieran asked her bluntly.

"Of course not," Mistress Jones answered him indignantly. She was a plump, sweet-faced woman with dark hair, rosy cheeks, and bright blue eyes that surveyed him with a level gaze. "The ignorant always try to explain what they cannot by crying witchery, sir. I am a physician as was my father who taught me. I am a healer, as was my mother, who had the touch. I have it also. My success in Enniskillen succeeded in arousing jealousy in the town's two other physicians, and its surgeon. 'Twas they who started the rumors. Not only was I a better doctor than they were, but I was a woman, and we all know that women are only good for bearing children and keeping a man's house," she finished with a twinkle in her eye.

"You have no husband?" he pressed her.

"I have no time for a husband," she replied tartly.

"Jones is not an Ulster name," he said.

"My parents came from Anglesey," she told him. "My grandfather was a physician at Beaumaris. My mother's people were merchants who traded with Ireland. Since my grandfather Jones had two sons, and both followed in his footsteps, my father, who was the younger, had no choice but to leave Anglesey to seek a place where his skills would be needed. Anglesey is a poor place, and one physician and his elder son were more than enough. I was my parents' only child, and a wee baby when we came to Enniskillen," she concluded her explanation.

"It will not be easy in the New World, Mistress Jones," Kieran told her. "Have you no one to go with you?"

"There is Taffy," she said quietly. "He is part of the reason it was so easy to believe witchcraft of me."

"Why?"

"He is a dwarf, sir, and he is mute, but he is intelligent, and understands everything said to him. His mother abandoned him when she saw what he was going to be. I have raised him as I would have my own child. He assists me, and is my apothecary. He is not ugly, just tiny. And there are my dogs, sir. I do not keep a cat for obvious reasons," she finished with a chuckle.

He laughed. He liked her, and knew Fortune would too. "There are certain things you must bring," he said. "Have you the coin to purchase them? We can help if you do not. Your skills, and that of your assistant, will be valuable assets to us."

"When do we leave?" she asked him.

"My wife and I will depart for Scotland, and then England in a few days' time," he explained. "Then I must be introduced to Lord Baltimore, who is heading this expedition, and convince him to take us with him. My people will remain in Ulster until I send for them. It may be this summer, or it may not be until next year. We have the ships, and they will take our party from here. There is no necessity to travel to England," Kieran said. "The horses will come with the rest of you."

Adam Leslie celebrated his fifteenth birthday on the fourteenth day of May. He was as tall as his father now, and openly eager to be his own master. Jasmine, however, took her second Leslie son aside.

"You must keep the peace here," she said. "You cannot allow any persecution of either Catholic or Protestant in Maguire's Ford. There will be those who will come and attempt to make you choose sides, Adam, but you must not give way. No faith is better than another, whatever certain men may say. St. Augustine said, Love God, and do as you please. It is good advice, my son. I hope you will go down to Trinity in Dublin in another year, or so. As long as Rory Maguire is here to see to your interests you are free to educate yourself fully."

"I've hae all the education I can stomach, Mam," he told her. "Duncan is the one who hae a love of book learning. I can read, write, and keep the accounts. I can speak French and Italian, although what good that will do me, I dinna know. Now I would learn from Maguire how this estate is managed, and how to breed the horses. Free me this day forever from the good-hearted, but dull Samuel Steen."

His mother laughed, and ruffled his dark hair. "Very well, Adam, you are freed. 'Tis better, I suspect, that you learn the business of life now that you have such a responsibility on your strong shoulders."

"Do I hae charge over Duncan?" the young man asked.

Jasmine thought a moment. Duncan Leslie was now twelve years old. Still a boy. Adam was yet young enough to be a bully. Jasmine did not see the Reverend Mr. Steen, a well-natured man, as having the final authority over Duncan. Mr. Steen could be easily led as he was, by nature, a peacemaker. "Cullen Butler will have charge over your brother," she told Adam. "And if he is not here, then Rory Maguire. You do not need any more responsibility than I have given you, Adam," Jasmine concluded, softening her decision.

"If there is trouble," Adam said, "there are some who will nae appreciate that you appointed two Catholics to hae charge over one of your sons, Mam. What are we to do then?"

"Then," Jasmine said, "the final authority will rest with your father, Adam, and as he will be over the sea in Scotland, no decision of any importance regarding Duncan can be made until Jemmie Leslie decides it, eh?"

Adam Leslie grinned. "Yer a clever slyboots, Mam."

Rory Maguire watched them as they spoke. Would he ever see her again? he wondered. Or their daughter? Itwas Fortune he feared for now. The New World was an ocean away, yet he would not brave the journey. His lass was a fine combination of her Celtic ancestors and her Mughal ancestors. And how she loved Kieran Devers! He smiled to himself. She had every bit the fire and passion her mother had. And she was so eager to begin this grand adventure with the man she loved.

I hardly know you, he pondered silently. And you know even less of me, my daughter. Mine is a secret that will go with me to my grave. Only on the day we meet in heaven will you know the truth, Fortune Mary, but I'll miss you, lass. This year has been the best in all my life because you were here for me to see, and to be with, but you cannot know that. Once, long ago, I bid your mam farewell, and then I wept all the while telling myself that men did not cry. I'll weep twice as much and as hard this time, lassie, but at least I know you are loved. Not just by your mother, and James Leslie, but by that wild Ulsterman you've gone and married yourself to, Fortune Mary Devers. And my love will go with you, my daughter. You will always have my heart, even as your mother has had it all these years.

The last loose end to be tied before they might leave Maguire's Ford was Rois's marriage to Kevin Hennessey. The ceremony was performed in the castle's wee chapel the morning of their departure. The young couple would be going with Fortune and Kieran as their personal servants, although once they were in the New World, Kevin would take over the responsibility of the horses that would be coming with them. Kevin's parents were long dead, which had played a part in his decision to come. Rois's parents and grandparents saw her wed to her childhood sweetheart. Michael Duffy wiped a tear from his eye to see his daughter married, but his mother, Bride, wept openly and noisily as her granddaughter spoke her vows. All knew that Bride's tears were because this would be the last time she was likely to see her youngest granddaughter, and Rois had always been a particular favorite of Bride's.

In the hall the bride and groom were toasted, and wished every good fortune. The time had come to depart Maguire's Ford. Jasmine bid her two sons a tender farewell, promising to return in a year or two to check on them. This knowledge cheered her many friends who had thought never to see the duchess of Glenkirk again once she left them.

"Nay," laughed Jasmine. "I must make certain these two scamps do what they ought. Then, too, one day I shall have to find wives for them, won't I? This one"-and she tousled Adam's hair-"is already sneaking about looking at the lasses. Didn't think I knew?" she teased Adam. "Even from Scotland I shall know what mischief you are up to, my darling laddies." Then she hugged her sons. Now she turned to Rory.

"Continue as you have in the past, old friend," she said. "I made no mistake the day I put my trust in you, Rory Maguire. I thank you for all you have done, and for all you will do. I shall be back, I promise you." Then Jasmine surprised him by leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. "I think I may do that, mayn't I?" she queried the blushing man. Then she patted his hand. "Farewell, Rory, until we meet again."

"Why you're red as a beet, Rory Maguire," Fortune said with a chuckle as she put her arms about him, and hugged him, kissing his other cheek heartily. "Mama did surprise you, didn't she? But I haven't. You should know by now that I love and adore you, Godfather. I shall miss you, Rory. Are you certain you don't want to come to the New World with us? What fine horses we shall raise from the fine stock you will send us. Ulster is such a sad place, I fear, and growing sadder."

Rory held Fortune tightly in his arms, for a moment, savouring the sweetness of her, his daughter. Then he said, "I would not leave the people of Maguire's Ford when my family departed Ulster with the earls all those years ago, lassie. I will not leave it now, though I thank you for the offer." He kissed her cheek. "You're leaving with a fine husband, Fortune Mary, and that is, after all, what you came to Ulster for, didn't you?" He set her back from him, and smiled into her beautiful face. "Go with God, and go in peace and safety," he said. "If you were to send me a missive now and again, I should not mind, and I might even answer it." Then holding her by the shoulders he kissed her a final time upon her smooth forehead.

Fortune felt a terrible sadness suddenly overwhelm her, and her eyes filled with tears. Looking momentarily into his eyes she saw that they, too, were filled with moisture. "Ohh, Rory, I shall miss you! And I will write, I promise you!" she half-sobbed.

"Take your wife, Kieran Devers, for she is about to weep all over my good doublet," Rory said gruffly as he handed Fortune off to her husband.

Kieran Devers put a protecting arm about Fortune while holding out his other hand to the Maguire. "Farewell, Rory Maguire. You know what I would have of you, don't you?"

Maguire nodded. "Aye, laddie, I'll watch over the graves, I swear it," he said, shaking the younger man's hand.

Now James Leslie came, and bid Rory Maguire good-bye. "Watch over my lads," he said. "I know you'll teach Adam well, Maguire."

"I will, my lord," came the expected answer.

Bride Duffy, still weepy, bid them all a farewell. Fergus Duffy would be driving the coach to the coast where their ship was waiting.

Jasmine had a final word with her cousin, Cullen Butler. "Tread lightly, Cullen. I want no martyrs on my conscience," she cautioned him. " 'Tis a very delicate part of me, and I'll not have the ghost of Mam rising up to chide me."

"Have I not done well all these years, little cousin?" he said.

"Times have changed even in the year we have been here, Cullen," Jasmine reminded him. "The militant Protestants become more vociferous with each passing day. England rules Ireland, and in England the king himself is struggling with the Puritans to maintain order. He must be very careful lest his French Catholic queen be accused of influencing him. It is not an easy time, and it does not appear things will be getting any easier soon. Foresight, even in a priest, is not a bad trait."

"God will watch over me," he said quietly.

"God helps those who help themselves," she said with a small smile. "Watch over my lads, but if anyone would force your hand, remember, the duke of Glenkirk is the final authority in any matter concerning his sons, Cullen."

The priest kissed her hand. "God bless you, Cousin," he said. "Now, depart, else you meet yourself returning."

The Leslies and the Deverses departed for the coast. The great baggage train they had brought with Fortune the year before had now increased in size, and gone ahead of them the day before. There was a single travel coach, but for now it held only their necessary luggage, Rohana, and Adali. The two other servants, like their masters, preferred to ride rather than be confined to the coach. They avoided the Appleton estate on their return journey, traveling a bit longer distance so they might stay at Mistress Tully's Golden Lion Inn overnight.

Reaching the coast they found their baggage carts already upon the docks, and being loaded upon the ship that would return them back, to Scotland. Slowly the carts were emptied, the trunks and the boxes being carried up the gangway to be stowed in the ship's hole.

" 'Tis fortunate you warned us to come empty, my lady," the ship's captain said with a grin, "but at least the young mistress got what she came to Ulster for, eh?" He chuckled.

The duchess of Glenkirk smiled. "Aye," she said in reply. "Fortune has probably gotten more than she bargained for, captain."

The voyage was a short one. Seeing the coastline of his native land disappearing Kieran Devers had a mild pang, but he felt no regrets. They were doing the right thing in leaving, and he relished the adventure ahead. He had never in all his life been out of Ireland, unlike his young wife for whom travel was a commonplace thing. He wondered what awaited them. He wondered what they would do if Lord Baltimore would not have them. He hoped his father-in-law's small influence would aid them, and if it did, what would this New World be like?

Kieran Devers looked to the coast of Scotland that was now in his view after two days at sea. His arm rested lightly about Fortune's slender shoulders. She smiled up at him.

" 'Twill be all right, Kieran, my love. I feel it in my heart. The New World is where we belong, you and I. There is where we will carve out a grand life, and a wonderful future for ourselves, and for our children. Lord Baltimore will have us. How can he refuse?"

"I have never before in my life felt such responsibility as I do now, Fortune," Kieran admitted to her. "All my life I was answerable for no one but myself. I lived in my father's house, safe and secure. Now it is all different. I have you to love, but we have no place that we may call our own, where we may live together. I am not afraid, yet I am concerned, my love."

"You needn't be, Kieran. I told you that in my heart I know what we are doing is the right thing. The world is ours!" And her confident smile convinced him that all would truly be well.

^{Chapter 14}

George Calvert had been born to Leonard Calvert, a well-to-do country gentleman, and his wife, Alicia, in Yorkshire in the year 1580. While his father was a Protestant, and he had been raised as one, his mother was a Catholic who quietly practiced her faith. Calvert had been educated at Trinity College, Oxford. Concluding his studies he embarked upon a tour of the Continent as did most young gentlemen of his station. At the English embassy in Paris he had the good fortune to meet with Sir Robert Cecil, the queen's Secretary of State. Cecil liked the circumspect young man, and offered him a position on his staff.

Elizabeth Tudor died, and James Stuart became king. Cecil remained in his position, and made George Calvert his private secretary. By this time Calvert had contracted a marriage with Anne Mynne, a young woman of good family from Hertfordshire. The Calverts named their first child, a son, Cecil, in honor of George's patron. Other children followed. Three more sons and two daughters.

Sir Robert became the Earl of Salisbury which but increased George Calvert's stature and visibility. When the king and queen made a visit to Oxford in 1605, Calvert was one of five men to be awarded a master's degree from the university. The other four gentlemen were all nobles of high rank. Now the king began to send Sir Robert's secretary on his own official business to Ireland, for he liked him personally, trusted him, and knew him to be very competent.

When Cecil died in 1612 the king kept George Calvert on, and five years later knighted him. Shortly thereafter Sir George Calvert was made the king's Secretary of State, and a member of the Privy Council. The country gentleman's son had come far indeed.

A hard worker, and genuinely modest, Calvert was very well liked by the men with whom he came in daily contact. Unlike many at court he had no enemies. As his fortunes rose he and his wife planned a large house at Kiplin in Yorkshire where he had grown up. But then Anne died in childbirth with their sixth child, and devastated, George Calvert turned to the Catholic religion of his mother for solace and comfort. He kept his new faith a secret, obeying the strict laws imposed upon England's citizens in the matter of religion.

Unfortunately it was at this time King James asked his loyal servant to officiate on a committee that was being formed to try a group of men who refused to belong to the Church of England. Some were Catholics and some were Puritans. Now George Calvert's conscience and ethics came to the forefront. This was not a task he could take on under his changed religious circumstances. So he first spoke to his master, the king, and after publicly announced his conversion to Catholicism. He resigned his offices, including that of Secretary of State. This, despite the fact the king had offered to release him from taking the oath of supremacy so he might continue in the royal service. Trustworthy, capable gentlemen of Sir George Calvert's kind were difficult to find.

Still, James Stuart was an honorable man who valued the few real friendships he had. He knew that despite his Catholic faith George Calvert would always be loyal to him and his heirs. He might have sent his friend to the tower. Instead he created him a baron in the Irish peerage, with lands in County Longford. Then, because the new Lord Baltimore had always wanted to found a colony in the New World, the king gave him a huge land grant on the Avalon peninsula in Newfoundland.

Colonists were sent out, and Sir George later followed with his new wife and family only to discover that Newfoundland was not a particularly hospitable place in which to settle. The winters seemed to last from mid-October until well into the month of May. There was virtually no time for crops to grow and be harvested. The fishing was excellent, and would prove a profitable venture, however the French began to harass Avalon. Calvert wisely sent his family south to Virginia, and spent the winter in his colony. When the spring came he was relieved to find himself still alive. He sent the king a letter explaining the difficult situation, and departed to join his wife in Virginia. He had sadly realized that Avalon was not the colony he wanted to found.

Once reunited with his family in Jamestown he set about to find a more hospitable territory where he could make his dream of a colony where all religions were tolerated equally come true. While he was welcomed in Virginia by his friends, he was also viewed with suspicion by many who assumed his faith would make him loyaler to his co-religionists from Spain far to the south of Virginia, than to his own countrymen. Ignoring them as best he could, George Calvert did look south for land, but while the climate was pleasant enough, there was no suitable deep water anchorage for the English ships that would bring supplies and colonists from England. By now a letter from the king was awaiting him in Jamestown ordering him to return home to England.

Before he might receive this missive, however, Calvert looked to the north of Virginia, exploring the Chesapeake region. What he saw excited him greatly. There were great sheltered bays, and harbors with tides that ran no higher on an average day than two feet. The bays, one running into another, were fed by numerous rivers and streams, some of them navigable quite far inland. The waters abounded with fish, shellfish, ducks, and geese. In the great forests lining the Chesapeake were turkeys, deer, and rabbit. There were bushes of edible berries, and fruit trees. He recognized a great number of hardwood trees that would build houses and ships. George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, believed he had found his colony, and it was a paradise.

Returning to Jamestown he found the king's letter, and immediately returned home, leaving his second wife and children behind. His goal was to obtain a grant for the lands about the Chesapeake area, for this was the perfect place for his colony. In England James I was dead, but Charles I, his son, was equally fond of Lord Baltimore. He thought his father's old friend and faithful servant looked tired and worn, and attempted to turn his mind from the New World. But Charles I finally saw that George Calvert would not be dissuaded until he could found this colony of his which he had been talking about for years. As for religious toleration, the king was doubtful such a thing could be obtained, but let George Calvert try if he must.

Lord Baltimore was granted by royal decree the land: to the true meridian of the first fountaine of the River Pattowmeck. Created Lord Proprietary, his rights over this territory were virtually royal. He could make laws. Raise an army. Pardon criminals, confer land grants, and titles. And then King Charles gave his father's old friend an especial right not even granted to the Virginia colony. Lord Baltimore's colony was allowed to trade with any country it chose to trade with; and in return, the king would receive one fifth of any gold or silver discovered in the colony, and be paid annually a quitrent of two Indian arrows.

As the charter was being drawn up for the new colony the king gently suggested that, having no name yet, Lord Baltimore might like to name it after the queen. George Calvert agreed, a twinkle in his eyes. Terra Mariae was therefore entered into the Latin charter as the colony's name, but it was immediately called by its more familiar English appellation, Mary's Land.

Lady Baltimore and the children were sent for, but after a quiet voyage their vessel was wrecked off the coast of England with no survivors. Lord Baltimore was devastated. He had lost two wives, and several of the children. Exhausted, worn down by his many years of hard work, and saddened beyond all measure, George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, died suddenly on April fifteenth, 1632. Two months later the royal charter was issued to the second Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, a handsome young man of twenty-seven.

At Glenkirk, James Leslie had learned all of this news-sent to him by his stepson Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy- even as Kieran and Fortune prepared to go south to England. "I doubt ye'll be able to sail this year," he said, "but ye'll nae know that until ye speak wi Lord Baltimore. Ye'll go to Queen's Malvern first, and Charlie will know what ye're to do next. I dinna know these people, but since they're connected wi the court, Charlie will."

James Leslie and his wife had decided they would not be going south to England for their usual summer visit with their family. The duke felt he had been away from his lands a year, and would not travel again so soon. Jasmine was only just recovering from her childbirth of seven months ago. She did not want to take a bairn as young as Autumn on another journey. The trip home had been all she would dare with the precious infant upon whom she doted so greatly. Fortune and Kieran would go alone to England.

Now as the day for their departure came near the duchess of Glenkirk grew sad. When her second daughter had gone she would have no children left at home but Patrick Leslie, but he was sixteen, and while he loved his mother, and tolerated her concern, he considered himself a man. And her wee Autumn Rose, who was growing so quickly Jasmine could almost feel life speeding by her, and she was helpless to stop it.

Fortune sensed her mother's mood, and attempted to cheer her "She's only a baby, Mama. 'Twill be years before she leaves you. You can devote yourself to her as you never really could to the rest of us. I think Autumn is very fortunate to have you, Mama."

"Aye," her mother answered, brightening a bit. Fortune was very astute, but then she had always been the practical child. When she and her siblings were young I was at court, Jasmine thought. I did not have the time for them I shall have for this daughter. "I will miss you," the duchess of Glenkirk said softly.

"I will miss you, Mama," came the reply. "On one hand I am so excited to be going to the New World, but on the other I am a little afraid. It is such an adventure, and as you know I have never been one for adventure. I did not ever plan to have one. Yet here I am, setting off into the unknown with my darling Kieran. If only people would tolerate each other's religions, I should have never had to leave Ulster." She sighed deeply. "Do you think this Mary's Land will really be a place of toleration, Mama? What if it isn't? Where will we go then?"

"You will come home to Glenkirk where we will protect you," the duchess said firmly. Then she took her daughter into her arms, and they hugged one another. "You know, Fortune, that you and Kieran will always be welcome here. AIways!"

It was so difficult leaving, Fortune thought, the day they departed Glenkirk. There was a strong likelihood that she would never see this childhood home of hers ever again. An ocean would separate them, and having crossed it once, Fortune was not certain she would have the courage to cross back over it again. As she had always said, she was not one for adventure, and yet what was this she was doing? This place they were going to was a wilderness. There were no castles, no houses, no towns, or shops. How would they survive? Yet what other choice did they have?

Fortune put on a brave face, and said good-bye to all those whom she loved. Her stepfather, James Leslie, her mother, Jasmine, her brother, Patrick, her baby sister, Autumn. Her mother's lifelong servants for the first time since she had known them were teary. They were, she noticed for the first time, growing older. I will never see them again, she realized suddenly. She put her arms about Adali, her mother's majordomo. There were no words to say what was really in her heart. He hugged her wordlessly, then turned away, but not quickly enough for she had seen his tears. Rohana and Toramalli hugged and kissed her, and unable to help themselves wept fulsomely.

They left Glenkirk, Fortune's great train of possessions behind them, protected until they reached Queen's Malvern by an armed troop of Leslie men-at-arms. The trip was, as it usually was, uneventful, but for Kieran, Rois, and Kevin it was as much of an adventure as their voyage from Ulster had been. For Fortune it was just another trek into an English summer.

Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy, was awaiting them on their arrival at his home, Queen's Malvern. The estate had been given to his great-grandparents by Elizabeth Tudor, and passed on to him with the blessing of his grandfather, King James. It had therefore cost the canny king nothing to bestow a dukedom upon his first grandchild, a bargain he well liked. Charlie, as his family called him, was a tall, slender young man with auburn hair, and the Stuarts' amber eyes. He looked far more like his father, the late Prince Henry, than he did like his mother's family. He would be twenty in September, and was as polished a courtier as his Great-Uncle Robin Southwood, the earl of Lynmouth, had been at his age.

"You're looking particularly lush and well satisfied," he greeted his elder sister with a wicked grin. " 'Tis obvious marriage agrees with you, Fortune." He kissed her heartily, and gave her a hug.

"A Stuart first, as Mama likes to say," she responded with a chuckle. "Here is my husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran, Charlie, the not-so-royal Stuart in the family."

The two men clasped hands, sizing one another up, and immediately decided they liked one another.

"Henry will eventually be over from Cadby," Charlie told his sister, and then said to Kieran, "the revered eldest brother of us all."

They moved into the house, and into the family hall where the servants were quick to bring refreshment. Settling themselves about the fire, for the June day was chill, they talked.

"Papa said you would know how to contact Lord Baltimore," Fortune said to her brother.

"He's at Wardour Castle down in Wiltshire," was the reply.

"How do we get there?" Kieran asked.

"Fortune will remain here," Charlie said. "You and I will ride down in a few days' time. I'll send ahead to gain an appointment with him, for this expedition of his is extremely popular, and he is besieged by those who are interested in going. Many, of course, are only interested in gaining lands, and then leaving them to their colonists while they return to England to live well. Cecil Calvert, like his father before him, wants responsible colonists who will remain in Mary's Land. I think you will qualify, and that, along with your ability to support yourselves, will weigh heavily in your favor. And of course because I am the king's dear nephew, and want a place for you," he teased them both.

"And we have our own vessels," Fortune said. "I'm going with you, Charlie. You aren't going to leave me behind while you two have all the fun, little brother."

"Wardour will be no place for a woman," he protested. "An important expedition is being set up there. It will be full of men, Fortune, and you are a respectable married woman now, for God's sake."

"Doesn't Lord Baltimore have a wife, Charlie?"

"Aye, Lady Anne Arundel," was the answer.

"Is she there?"

"Of course! It's her father's home," he replied.

"Then I shall go," Fortune said. "You're a courtier, Charlie, and you don't really know a great deal outside of the court. And my husband is a country gentleman from Ulster, unfamiliar with English ways. I have to go. I'm the only one of us with a practical nature, and we'll need my skills at negotiation."

"She's right," Kieran said with a chuckle, "but I'll not mind her company at all, Charlie."

The young duke thought a moment, and then he grinned. "Damn me if you aren't correct as always, sister. I'd forgotten that you are the sensible one among us. Aye, come along, but we're going to ride, Fortune. No servants, and no fancy clothing. Wardour at Tisbury is several long days' ride from Queen's Malvern. Perhaps on the way back we'll go by way of Oxton, and see India and her family."

"Ohhh, I should like that!" his sister responded enthusiastically.

They sent word to Cadby to Henry Lindley that they were leaving for Wiltshire, and would see him when they returned. Rois and Kevin were left in the care of the Queen's Malvern servants, and the trio rode out one fine June morning. Kieran was surprised to find how capable his wife was in caring for herself. He had not realized it before, and it struck him suddenly how little he really knew Fortune. They reached Wardour Castle several days later. Fortune had never seen a building such as Wardour before. It was hexagonal in shape, and its Great Hall was laid out over its entrance.

Cecil Calvert greeted them personally. "Charlie! 'Tis good to see you, my lord. The king is well?"

"I haven't been at court in a month," Charlie replied. "I've come today to ask a favor of you, Cecil. This is my sister, Lady Fortune Lindley, and her husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran was heir to a lovely little estate in Ulster until his English stepmother decided her son, Kieran's half-brother, would make Mallow Court a better master."

"You're a Catholic?" Lord Baltimore said, his look sympathetic.

"Aye, my lord, I am," Kieran said quietly.

"They want to go with you, Cecil," Charlie said.

Lord Baltimore looked distressed. "We already have more people than I had anticipated," he said.

Now it was Fortune who spoke up. "We have our own ships, my lord," she said. "My own two trading vessels. The larger I'll use for our transport. The other I intend using for the horses. We have colonists, too. Fourteen men of whom five are farmers, two fishermen, two weavers, and one each, a blacksmith, a cooper, a tanner, a shoemaker, and an apothecary. The five farmers have wives, and several children among them. All are healthy, devout, and of good character. And we have a physician, Mistress Happeth Jones, plus my two servants. We can provision all our people as well as the ship, my lord. Please, let us come with you. There is nowhere else for us to go, for while my husband is a Catholic, I am an Anglican. They say you will practice toleration of all faiths in your Mary's Land. It would seem the perfect place for us."

Cecil Calvert looked at the lovely young woman before him. While she was dressed for riding, rather outrageously in doeskin breeches, her garments were expensive, and elegant. Her hands were the hands of a lady. Her speech refined. "It will not be an easy place to settle, Lady Lindley," he told her. "You will have to build your own home, and it will be nothing, I will wager, like that which you are used to for it is a wilderness. There are other dangers too. Some of the natives are not friendly, and as prone to war as the French and the Spanish, although I hope to negotiate a peace treaty with them. You must bring everything that you need with you, and if you find you are in need of something you do not have, you will have to do without it. You will be bereft of your family, for I know from Charlie that yours is a large family. You will not see your brothers and sisters for years, if indeed you see them ever again. Are you truly certain that you would make this great journey, and live in this new world?"

"Aye," Fortune told him bravely, "I am, my lord."

"I would consider it a debt owed you, Cecil," Charlie Stuart said meaningfully.

Lord Baltimore waved his hand. "Nay, Charlie, I am happy to offer your sister and her husband a place in my colony. They are just the kind of people I truly want. They will make something of the land given them, and they will remain to build the colony. Come with me now to my privy chamber. I will tell you what is involved, and what you will get in exchange." He tucked Fortune's hand in his. "I remember you, and your sister, India, at court. You were two of the prettiest young ladies there at the time. You departed, leaving behind many broken hearts." He led them along a stone corridor, finally ushering them into a paneled room where a fire was burning merrily.

Lord Baltimore settled his guests, sitting with them. "Now," he said, directing his gaze to Fortune and Kieran. "For every grant of land made by me, an oath of fealty must be sworn to me as the colony's Proprietary. You will receive a thousand acres for every five men you bring with you. As you are bringing fifteen men you will be given three thousand acres, Master Devers. I will want twenty pounds for each man transported. The women and children will not be charged. Each male colonist will receive a hundred acres for himself, and if he has a wife, one hundred acres for her in addition. Fifty-acres is assigned to each child over the age of sixteen years. They will pay twelve pence quitrent each year for every fifty acres. You will pay twenty pounds quitrent yearly.

"Each of your people must have a minimum of two hats, two suits, three pairs of stockings, shoes, one ax, one saw, one shovel, nails, one grindstone, one spit, one gridiron, a pot, a kettle, a frying pan, and seven ells of canvas. The women, of course, will take gowns, and not suits. Each man will need a musket, ten pounds of powder, ten pounds of lead, bullets, and goose shot, as well as a sword, a belt, a bandolier, and a flask. Your people, both men and women, should learn how to shoot for they will not be able to depend solely upon the gentlemen in the expedition for protection."

Kieran nodded. "What kind of food supplies shall we stock?" he asked.

"Flour, grain, cheeses, dried fish, meat, and fruit. Casks of beer, cider, and wine. And seed. You will be given a list of what to bring for we must get through a winter and spring before we will be able to eat off our own land," Lord Baltimore said.

"Then you intend sailing this year?" Kieran was surprised. Both his father-in-law and Charlie believed Lord Baltimore's expedition could not set off until the next year. They would have to send to their people and tell them to prepare. Monies would have to be dispatched to Rory Maguire for the supplies. "When?" There was so much to do.

"Autumn. 'Tis not the best time to travel, but we have no other choice. Unlike my father, I seem to have enemies who would prefer Mary's Land not be settled."

The representatives of the Virginia colony were in particular most vexing. They complained to the king that by allowing the Mary's Land colony to come into existence they would lose both land and settlers. They complained that Cecil Calvert was setting up a colony where all people, even Catholics, could worship in freedom. Then they started rumors that only Catholics would be allowed in Mary's Land. They lobbied hard to get King Charles to rescind Lord Baltimore's charter. He listened to them all, but he remembered George Calvert's faithful service to his family. And, too, his young Catholic queen pleaded privily with him to ignore the malcontents.

"The charter will stand," the king told his wife. "I think the Calverts dreamers to believe they can actually make a place in this world where all people, no matter their faith, can be welcome. Human nature being what it is…" He shrugged. "But perhaps it is possible," the king concluded. "We will pray for their success."

Nonetheless Calvert's detractors continued to work behind the scenes to destroy Lord Baltimore's dream. Cecil Calvert realized he could not, at this time, go with his colonists. He put his younger brother, Leonard, in command, and his even younger brother, George, was made the colony's deputy governor. Jerome Hawley and Thomas Cornwallis were named to assist the Calverts as commissioners. The preparations continued for an autumn departure. Kieran and Fortune returned to Queen's Malvern to prepare. There was no time for visiting India at Oxton.

Back at Queen's Malvern Fortune realized that her moon link had been broken. She was with child. The knowledge put her in a quandary. She knew if her husband learned of her condition he would not allow her to go to Mary's Land until after their child was born. Had she been India, she would have kept the secret, but she was not India. She was the practical child, and yet… she sighed.

"What is it?" her brother asked as he came upon Fortune sitting upon a stone bench in the Queen's Malvern gardens. He sat by her side, and took her hand in his.

"I have a problem to solve," Fortune said. Her fingers worried her dark green silk skirts.

"Are you having second thoughts about leaving England?" he queried her. He didn't really understand the passion she and Kieran had for going. Catholics lived in England. Not easily, but they did.

"Mary's Land is where my husband and I belong," Fortune said to Charlie. "I have never really felt at home anywhere, and neither has Kieran. We know Mary's Land is where we must go. That is not my difficulty, little brother."

"Then it can only be you have not told your husband about your expected child," Charlie said.

Fortune was astounded. "How did you know?" she gasped.

Charles Frederick Stuart laughed aloud. "How many children does Mama have? I was the fourth. Five have followed me, Fortune. I know when a woman is with child. When is the babe due?"

"I don't know," she admitted, and when he chortled, she said, "Don't you dare to laugh, Charlie! I always expected Mama would be here when I had my first baby. I thought it would be she who explained to me how long it took for a child to grow inside a woman. What am I to do?" She stood up, and began to pace the gravel path.

"When was your link with the moon broken, sister?" he asked.

Fortune looked askance at him, but said, "I have had no show of blood since we left Glenkirk."

His handsome brow furrowed a moment, and then he said, "Probably very early spring, but we'll write to Mama. In the meantime you must tell your husband, Fortune. He has to know."

Fortune debated with herself as to how she would inform Kieran that she was expecting their first child, and just how she would convince him nonetheless to let her travel to Mary's Land with their party. Yet she couldn't seem to get up the courage to tell her husband. She knew what he would say. He would insist they remain in England until the child was born, and able to travel in safety. After all, wasn't that the decision her parents had made last year in Ulster? And Autumn was Mama's ninth baby, not her first. Perhaps she would wait until they were at sea to tell him. Yes! She would apprise him of her condition then when it was too late to turn back. It was the perfect solution. God's boots, Fortune thought to herself. I am more like Mama and India than I ever realized. So she said nothing, and astutely avoided her brother's questioning looks.

She awoke one morning ravenous, and dressing, hurried to the family hall to join Kieran and Charlie in breaking their fast. She ate with enthusiasm. A bowl of oat stir-about with dried apples and heavy cream. Fresh bread smeared with butter and topped with a wedge of sharp cheddar. Two hard-boiled eggs, liberally salted, and topped off with a mug of sweet cider. Suddenly, however, her stomach rebelled. It rolled, and gurgled loudly, and then before Fortune could even stand up, she vomited her breakfast back upon the high board with a groan.

Both men looked somewhat horrified, and jumped up lest they be sprayed with her spew.

"Sweetheart, are you all right?" Kieran asked her, concerned.

Before Fortune might answer her husband, however, her brother spoke up. "You haven't told him, you vixen, have you?"

"Told me what?" Kieran demanded, looking from his wife to his brother-in-law.

"She's with child," Charlie burst out before his sister might concoct some believable tale which he would then have to either agree with, or end up calling her a little liar. "She was planning to tell you."

"When?" Kieran said dryly. "When we were at sea?"

"Aye," Fortune said in a tiny voice. "It seemed best."

Kieran snorted. "You would endanger yourself and our child merely to have your own way?"

The servants were now hurrying to clean up the mess, and the two men brought Fortune down to the fireside. Rois, who had seen what had happened, brought her mistress a mug of peppermint tea.

"Sip it slow, m'lady," she advised. "It will settle your belly. Then I will bring you some dry bread."

Fortune sat down in a tapestried chair. Looking up at her angry husband she said, "Will you go to Mary's Land without me, Kieran?"

"Of course not!" he almost shouted at her.

"Which is why I did not tell you," Fortune replied.

"You are not making any sense, Fortune," he told her.

"Aye, I am, if you will but hear me out, and stop roaring at me, Kieran Devers. I will not be howled at!" Then she burst into tears, sobbing piteously.

He was totally bewildered. She was in the wrong, and now she attempted to wheedle him with her tears. Well, he would not be manipulated by his fine lady. What she needed was a spanking, and had she not been with child, he would have given it to her.

"Women's emotions are outrageously sensitive when they are with child," his brother-in-law said calmly. "Give her a moment, and it will pass," he chuckled. "Fortune, stop weeping, sister, and tell us your reasons for being so secretive."

Fortune sniffled, but then she managed to contain herself. "If we do not go to Mary's Land with the first ships," she said, "we shall not get the best lands available. We need to be among the first! We are not influential milords, speculating with a new colony, Kieran; we are among the few of the colonists of wealth who will remain in Mary's Land, and build the colony. Most of the nobles going, if indeed they are even going and not simply sending their agents, hope for a quick profit. They will populate their lands with whoever they can, and then resell those properties to the highest bidder.

"We are bringing over horses next year. We need open meadows for them. We cannot spend our time clearing forests. If we are among the first colonists we will get those meadows, and shall receive our lands from Lord Baltimore himself. If we wait, we shall be forced to purchase those lands from others. We have to go, Kieran! We cannot remain here!"

"Why not?" he demanded. "There are Catholics in England. Could we not purchase a home here, and live quietly?"

Fortune shook her head. "You know the condition under which Catholics live in England. And the Puritans gain more power every day. Even the king isn't entirely safe from their matterings, and everything the queen does is criticized. And why? Because she is a Catholic. You think me selfish for wanting to go even though I am with child. Mistress Jones will see me safely through my travail, and I am not afraid. Yet you, too, are every bit as selfish as I am."

"Me? How?" He was astounded by her accusation.

"You have told me yourself that your faith is not particularly strong, and that you clung to your Catholicism because it was all you had left of your mother. I think you also did it to irritate your stepmother. You gave her the perfect weapon to use against you so that she was able to steal Mallow Court from you. Mallow Court had one thousand acres, and Maguire's Ford was another three thousand. We might have been a power in Ulster, and certainly in Fermanagh, Kieran, but that you sought to cling to the past, and argue about religion like the rest of them. I love you, Kieran Devers. I gave up a great estate for you, and never have I had a moment's regret. I am to bear your child in early spring. If you do not want me to travel to Mary's Land under those circumstances I will remain here in England; but by God, husband, you shall go with that expedition, and claim us our three thousand acres of well-watered and fertile lands! You are a man now, and have great responsibilities to bear. I am not Lady Jane. You can no longer hide behind your faith, using it to excuse your pride, Kieran Devers!"

He was speechless, and even when Fortune got up, and left the family hall, he could not find the words to stop her.

"Your first dressing down, I presume," Charlie said with a small attempt at humor.

Kieran nodded.

"The women in this family have tempers it is best not to rouse. They are intelligent, and proud, Kieran. My sister is correct when she says you have to go to Mary's Land even if she can't right now. It is no longer just you and Fortune. You have all those people back at Maguire's Ford depending on you to lead them to the New World. You have a child coming. You cannot run away from your duty now, I fear."

"How did one so young learn so much?" Kieran said, finally regaining his powers of speech.

"I had good teachers. My great-grandmother, Lady de Marisco. My mother, and stepfather. And, by nature, my lineage has afforded me great opportunities. One grows up quickly in a royal court, Kieran, particularly if you wish to survive and prosper. Being the king's nephew was never enough for me."

"It's all so strange to me," Kieran admitted. "I never understood the kind of family I was marrying into when I fell in love with your sister. We are so provincial by comparison, but I never realized it until I came to England. The moment I saw Fortune I knew I had to have her, and yet now, I wonder that I have not bit off more than I can chew. Am I a man who can carve out an empire in a new world? I wonder. Will I disappoint Fortune if I cannot? And our child? What of our child?" He ran a big hand through his dark hair in frustration.

"First of all," Charlie said, "you must understand that all the women in this family work with their men. They have this rather irritating knack of bearing and raising their young while managing their affairs quite successfully. Accept this rather strange gift that God has bestowed upon you, Kieran. Sit down with my sister, and decide how you will manage the business of colonizing your bit of the New World. Understand that you must go, and she must stay to have the child. She will come next year. By that time you will have a house built for them. You would not want to stay behind, and leave the responsibility of building a home for your family to others. There is nothing in this that cannot be managed, my friend," Charlie concluded, putting a comforting hand on his brother-in-law's broad shoulder.

"I have no other choice than to take your advice," Kieran said. "I pray you are right, Charlie. I do not like leaving Fortune."

"Mother will come, or better yet, India. Fortune was with her when she had her first child. Get her to tell you the story sometime." He grinned at Kieran. "Are you now over your shock? I don't imagine it was easy learning you had wed such a virago."

"I am not a virago," Fortune said, coming back into the hall. "How can you say such a thing? Kieran certainly knows better."

Her husband grinned. "Of course, I do, my love," he agreed. "Charlie and I have had a fine talk. We need to sit down and decide just how we will manage this voyage if you are to remain behind."

Fortune smiled at them both. "I knew you would see reason, Kieran," she murmured. "I am so glad that Charlie explained everything to you. Now, we have much to do, sir, and not a moment to waste!"

Charles Frederick Stuart, duke of Lundy, grinned over his sister's red head at his brother-in-law. The message was very clear. You see, it said. All you have to do is follow her lead.

Chapter 15

They sent word to Maguire's Ford as quickly as they could that the men planning to go with them be ready to board the Cardiff Rose in the next few months. Rory Maguire was sent a list of exactly what each man would need as had been provided by Lord Baltimore to the Deverses. The only woman in the party who would be allowed to go would be Mistress Jones, the physician, for her services could prove invaluable in those first months. She was advised to bring not only her dried herbs, roots, and barks, but plants and cuttings as well, for they did not know what plants would be available to her for her remedies in the new colony of Mary's Land.

The other women in the party, and the children, would remain in Ulster until the following summer when the Cardiff Rose would return for them, and then travel in company with the Highlander, the vessel which would contain the horses, and other livestock. It was planned that over the winter a house would be built for the Deverses as well as the others so that when the women arrived they and the children could be properly sheltered from the elements.

Once the men reached their destination on the far side of the sea, they would buy in Virginia oxen, a milk cow, and a horse for Kieran. That way come the spring they would be able to plow. They had already heard the Virginia colonists were not particularly friendly, being jealous of Mary's Land's special status. Fortune knew, however, that enough coin could overcome most reluctance, and advised her husband to make the best bargain he could, but to obtain what he needed at any price for their success, or failure, depended on it.

"You are so sensible," he told her one day as they went over a list of what had already been obtained. "I am sorry you cannot come with me, sweetheart."

She smiled up at him. "I want so very much to go with you," she said, "but I realize now it is better I don't. You must place your entire concentration on preparing our estate to be profitable, Kieran. I would be a burden to you, for you would fret over me in my current condition."

He placed his hand on her belly which had only recently begun to round slightly. "I hate that I will not be here when our son is born," he replied. "I remember my da, God assoil him, saying that the midwife took me from my mam's womb, and placed me directly into his hands. I wish I could be here to do the same thing, sweetheart." He caressed her stomach tenderly. "My son," he said, almost awestruck.

"Our child,'" she corrected him gently. "This could be a lass, or a lad, Kieran. I care not as long as the bairn is healthy."

He kissed her mouth softly. "I agree, Fortune." He kissed her again, and this time his kiss was a bit more passionate. "Just think. This time last year we were falling in love."

She laughed, and it was a happy sound. "You are the most sentimental man I have ever met, Kieran Devers," she told him. "I knew I was right to love you even if it did cost me Maguire's Ford."

The summer ended. Jasmine, along with her baby daughter, Autumn Leslie, came south to England to Queen's Malvern. The duke and his eldest son would remain at Glenkirk, but the duchess could not be dissuaded from being with her second daughter when she was with child. As Autumn was almost a year old now, she was able to travel more comfortably. Kieran felt better knowing Fortune's mother would be with her when their child was born.

"You are both wise," Jasmine said, "to have delayed Fortune's going. With first babies one can never be certain when they will come. It is better that Fortune remain here with us. Charlie will be off for court shortly, and we will have Queen's Malvern all to ourselves."

Charles Frederick Stuart celebrated his twentieth birthday. His brother, Henry Lindley, marquess of Westleigh, his older sister, India, countess of Oxton, and her husband, Deveral Leigh, came from their homes to help the not-so-royal Stuart commemorate the occasion. Jasmine looked about the hall that night. Here were her four eldest children. Once they had been so close. Now they were all grown, and making a great fuss over Autumn Leslie, the youngest of them all.

She looked at her Stuart son. "You are your father's image," she told Charlie. "He was twenty when he died. Thank God you have a stronger constitution. When he was born in Scotland they treated him like some Indian idol in my native land. He was carried about by his servants until he was four. He told me once that when they left him alone for the night he would creep from his bed, and run up and down his room. If he had not done so his poor legs would have been as weak as his baby brother's. Your poor Uncle Charles was less venturesome, and had a terrible time learning to walk. You may notice, Charlie, that even today he strides with an odd gait."

"I wondered where that had come from," Charlie replied. "You were older than my father, Mama, weren't you?"

"By three and a half years," Jasmine said, "but no one thought a great deal about it. I think they were relieved he had finally taken a mistress, thus proving his manhood. You know the rumors that always swirled about your grandfather, King James." She smiled, and patted his hand. "And you, my son? Has any lady yet stolen your heart?"

Charlie flushed. "I am the king's nephew. No matter I was born on the wrong side of the blanket, I am still his nephew, and the ladies are always most kind," the not-so-royal Stuart replied, a twinkle in his eye.

"Too bad Mama wasn't married to Prince Henry," Henry Lindley observed. "You'd be king now, and a better king, I think, than poor old royal Charles. If there is one thing he's certain of, 'tis his stature, but he cannot make any decision having to do with governance without mulling it to death. And do not dare to disagree with him. He takes neither suggestion, nor criticism, lightly."

"He is not a bad king," Jasmine defended the monarch.

"Aye, he is," the marquess of Westleigh said, "even if he does mean well, Mama. Still, at least our Charlie is spared Henrietta Marie as a wife," he chuckled. "An overproud, and pious little Catholic. Her very existence causes difficulties."

"Henry! Remember that your brother-in-law is a Catholic. I did not raise you to voice, or even consider, such prejudice," Jasmine admonished her oldest son.

"Mama, I am not anti-Catholic. I am practical, and speak the truth," the marquess said. "I would say the same if she were a pious little Puritan. Extremism is not healthy for a country, or its government. England is changing, and I am not certain I like the change."

"The English have shown a one-sidedness in religion for centuries," Kieran spoke up. "Perhaps not the people, but its rulers."

"The people too," Henry Lindley said fatalistically.

"I thought you had all come to celebrate my natal day," Charlie said with a grin. "I don't want to discuss politics, or religion. We are together as we will never be again. Soon our sister will leave us for this new world of hers. I want to eat, and drink, and reminisce tonight. Do you remember when we all fled to France because my grandfather, King James, and my grandmother, Queen Anne, decided that Jemmie Leslie was the perfect husband for Mama?"

"And it took him two years to find us because no one would tell him where we were," India laughed.

"Until Madame Skye hinted so broadly that he would have had to be a dunce not to find us, and he did," Charlie chuckled.

"He only found us because he followed our great-grandmother to France when she came to tell Mama our great-grandfather had died. But," Fortune said, "Papa was just the right husband for Mama, and the perfect father for us!"

"Except when he is so bull-headed that he cannot be reasoned with at all," India said.

"God's blood, India," Henry Lindley said to his eldest sister, "you're not still holding a grudge against poor Glenkirk? I thought you had forgiven him long ago. He did what he thought right."

"Oh, I've forgiven him," India replied, "but I was just remembering how he almost cost Dev and me our firstborn."

"I'd rather think of our childhoods," Fortune said. "What times we had when Mama was at court, and we got to stay with Madame Skye and Grandfather Adam. Remember the black pony he got you, India?"

India giggled. "I had been begging for that pony since you were born," she said. "In fact I remember telling him I should rather have a black pony than a baby sister. Do you remember when you were three, Fortune, and you managed, although to this day we don't know how, to clamber on that pony's back? Then you backed him from his stall, and rode out into the stableyard crowing with your accomplishment."

"And you were furious that I had dared to ride your pony, and so the next day Grandfather Adam bought me a dappled-gray pony with dark spots on his rump. I called him Freckles."

"How did you get up on my pony?" India asked her sister.

"Henry helped me," came the mischievous reply.

"Henry?" India was astounded, and looked to her brother.

The marquess of Westleigh laughed, chagrined. "I didn't expect Fortune to go out into the yard," he said, "and she was so eager to be on that pony's back. I was terrified that Mama would find out. So I slipped from the stables through the rear entrance, and pretended to be just as surprised as everyone else when she rode out. Fortune never told on me, for which, sister, I am to this day thankful."

Surprisingly their mother laughed at the tale. "How lucky you all were to have one another. My poor wee Autumn will grow up like an only child. The youngest of her Leslie brothers is twelve years older than she is. There is no one left at Glenkirk now but Patrick, and at sixteen he is more interested in lasses he can bed than in a baby sister." She smiled at her four eldest.

The next day Henry Lindley returned to his home, Cadby, even as his sister, India, and her husband left for Oxton, and Charlie was off to join the court. By evening only Jasmine, her two daughters, and Kieran remained at Queen's Malvern. There was a melancholy about the wonderful old brick mansion. Fortune and Kieran were keeping to themselves, and Jasmine understood. Too soon they would be parted. Then came word that the Mary's Land expedition would be sailing from Gravesend in mid-October.

"It's ridiculous to go all the way to London when the Cardiff Rose is berthed in Liverpool. You will travel there, Kieran," Fortune said, and her mother nodded in agreement. "The ship will sail to Dundalk to pick up the colonists, and you can meet Leonard Calvert's ships off of…" She looked puzzled. "Where, Mama?"

"Cape Clear, off Ireland," Jasmine said quietly. "The Mary's Land expedition will pass that way as they cross the Saint George's Channel going out to sea."

"We'll have to send a messenger off in the morning to Lord Baltimore," Fortune said, "to confirm these arrangements. And one to Maguire's Ford so that our men will be in Dundalk at the proper time. And the messenger has to return from Lord Baltimore so that you will have time to ride to Liverpool. I will go with you."

"Nay," Jasmine said firmly to her daughter. "I will go, but you must say your goodbyes to Kieran here. We cannot be bothered with a coach to convey you, and you should not make such a long journey a-horse. It is far too dangerous, Fortune, and you want a healthy child who will be able to make the long and dangerous trip to Mary's Land next summer."

"I agree, madame," Kieran Devers said quietly, and looked to his wife. "Fortune?"

For once Fortune saw the wisdom of her mother's argument without disagreement. She nodded, reluctantly. "I cannot argue with either of you, but oh, I wish I were going with you, Kieran."

The following day all the messengers were dispatched, and for the next few weeks the couriers came and went. Rory Maguire sent word that he would have the Irish colonists in Dundalk at the appointed time. The time grew nearer for Kieran Devers to leave his wife, and Fortune began to feel a dread such as she had never known.

"Are we mad?" she asked him. "It is such a long and dangerous journey across a vast ocean. What if the ship encounters a storm? What if it sinks? I will never see you again!" she wailed, and burst into tears, clinging to him, and soaking his nightshirt with her weeping.

"What other choice do we have?" he said quietly. "We have been over this a hundred times, Fortune. The New World is our destiny. There is nothing for us in this old world, darling." He stroked her disheveled red hair soothingly.

"I can become a Catholic," Fortune said. "I was baptized one. Then we can go to France, or Spain to live. We could live at Belle Fleurs, Mama's chateau. Grandfather Adam has family nearby at Archambault, Kieran. We could be happy there!" She looked up hopefully at him.

He sighed. "Perhaps you could be happy, Fortune, but I could not. I have my pride, and it has been difficult enough for me to swallow it these past months. I know that there are those who think I wed you because you are a great heiress, and not because I love you. Aye, I have a small inheritance thanks to my father, but my small wealth is nowhere near yours. In the New World I will build us a life, and a great estate. Perhaps not as great as the one we gave up, but I will do it myself, and no one will look askance at me. I never before considered what anyone thought of me, but then I married you, my love. I will not be a husband who lives off his wife's wealth! Nor will I have anyone think it of me, or of you. We will make our way together, Fortune, and we can only make it in the New World. Not here. Not in England. Not in Ireland. Not in Spain, or France. In Mary's Land! Do you understand now, my love, why I must go?"

"I never knew you felt this way, Kieran," Fortune answered him. "What I have is yours, darling. Let no one say otherwise. If it will make you happy, I will sign it all over to you!"

He chuckled. "Nay, sweetheart. I do not want your wealth. Your family is right to see that its women have their own. Besides, that is not the point, Fortune. As you have your pride, I have mine. A man must make his own way in the world." He caressed her tenderly. "What has happened to my practical little wife?"

"I don't want you to leave me!" she began to sob again. "I would rather be with you to share your fate than left behind here in England to have our child all alone!"

"You will not be alone," he said in reasonable tones. "You will have your mother with you, my love."

"I don't want Mama! Iwant you!"

Jasmine had warned him that Fortune's condition would cause her to act in an unreasonable manner at times. Here was his beautiful wife who had instructed him to go to Mary's Land to obtain the best land in the first wave of colonists now wailing at him. He didn't know what he could possibly say to her under the circumstances, and so he decided to take a tack he had never before taken with her.

"You cannot have me unless you wish to destroy all our chances to succeed, Fortune," he told her sternly. "You have said yourself our chances of success depend on obtaining the proper land for our horses. If I do not go now, how can I do that? You will survive without me to hold your hand. Didn't India have her firstborn in a mountain hunting lodge with only her two servants to help her? Having a baby is a most natural thing for a woman. Now, behave yourself, Fortune."

She was astounded by his reprimand. "How can you speak to me like that?" she demanded, suddenly angry.

"How can I not when you behave like a spoiled child?" he countered, thankful she was no longer weeping.

"I shall never forgive you for leaving me," Fortune announced in regal tones. "You are being horrible, Kieran."

"When you arrive in Mary's Land next summer and find a fine house awaiting you, and crops planted, and meadows of lush grass for our horses, you will forgive me. I go for you, Fortune, and for our child. Can you really be angry at me for that?" He tipped her lovely face up so he could look into her eyes.

"Yes!"

"Really?" he wheedled her, brushing her lips softly with his own.

"Yes!" She glowered at him, but her lips were twitching.

"Truly?" He kissed her with a barely concealed hunger, pushing her back amid the pillows on their bed, and unfastening the ribbons on her nightrail so he could nuzzle at her ripening breasts. She sighed, not answering him, and he began to kiss the swell of soft creamy flesh. She was so deliciously tempting. He fondled her bosom with a big hand, then leaned forward to kiss her closed and shadowed eyelids. "Have you any idea, Fortune, of how much I am going to miss you, my darling? A woman, I am told, loses her desire as she grows full with her babe, but a man has no such luxury. If anything I find you more exciting than ever before."

Her blue-green eyes opened, and she said, "Then you had best make the most of the few days you have left with me, my husband. You will not, I know, be unfaithful to me, will you?" She drew him back down into her arms, and nipped his earlobe. "Will you, Kieran?"

"Nay, Fortune," he told her. "I will not be unfaithful to you." He gently rolled her on her side, and pushed up her nightrail.

She sighed as he entered her ever so gently. Who on earth had told him that silly old wives' tale about a woman losing desire when she was with child? Perhaps later she might, but certainly not now. She pressed herself back against him, purring as he moved within her, his hands caressing her belly, her breasts, teasing at her sensitive nipples. "You will miss me," she taunted him wickedly; then she gave herself over to the pleasure he was creating between them.

"Aye, I will," he groaned, straining to bring them to a state of blissful oblivion; and when he succeeded they sighed in unison, replete with their shared satisfaction.

They spent the next few days in a haze of passion, and then it was time for Kieran to leave Queen's Malvern for Liverpool. Fortune had managed to overcome her last-minute trepidation. She stood upon the front stoop of the house, offering her husband a traveling cup. He drained it down, gravely handing her back the silver goblet. Then reaching down he pulled her up to kiss her a final time. "It is all for you, and the babe," he said softly. "I love you, Fortune. Pray for our success, sweetheart. God willing, I shall see you next summer in Mary's Land." He set her back down again, and without another word swung his mount about to move down the driveway, Kevin following.

"Mama!" Fortune called, and Jasmine turned. "Come home quickly, and give him what wisdom you can before you leave him."

Jasmine nodded, and then followed after her son-in-law.

Fortune turned back to the house, unable to see them ride out of sight. Mama would not be back for a week or more. She was virtually alone, but for her good Rois. "I hate this," Fortune muttered to herself, and then called to her maidservant to keep her company. She expected that Rois was no happier than she was with this situation. Rois came, red-eyed from weeping. "Don't cry, or I'll cry too," Fortune said. "I'm just as sad as you are, Rois."

"They had to go, I know," Rois sniffled. "Kevin says if we're to have a future we must own our own land, and we can't in Ulster. Still, why now? Now when I'm expecting our first bairn!" Then she began to cry again.

"You're having a baby too?" Fortune wondered why she was so surprised. "When?"

"A wee bit after you, m'lady," Rois admitted.

"Does Kevin know?" Fortune asked her servant.

Rois shook her head. "I was afraid to tell him lest he not go, and he was so intent upon it I didn't want to spoil his chances."

Fortune began to laugh. It was all so absurd. She had married the wrong brother because she loved him, lost her dowry in the process, and now was left behind enceinte with an enceinte serving woman while their husbands went off to seek their destiny. If this scenario had been presented to her two years ago she would have scorned such a fate for the practical and sensible Lady Fortune Mary Lindley. "Well, Rois," she said, "I think we have no other choice but to hope our men have great success in their endeavors. We'll keep each other company while our bairns ripen. Can you knit? I've never learned how, but I can sew a very fine seam. Let's make our babies some wee gowns. 'Tis as good a way as any I can think of to keep ourselves occupied."

Young Mistress Bramwell, the assistant housekeeper, went to the storerooms and brought back some lovely cambric and the sewing supplies that they would need. There were even old paper patterns from which they could cut the infant garments. Rohana came to help them for she had not gone with her mistress. For the next week they spent their days cutting and sewing. Baby Autumn came, and crawled about their feet, playing with the scraps of material that fell to the floor.

Eight days after she had departed Queen's Malvern Jasmine returned with her escort of Glenkirk men-at-arms. "They've sailed for Ireland," she said. "The wind was fair, and the seas calm. Don't look so worried, my poppet," she told her daughter. "I was six months coming from India, and I managed to arrive safely."

"He should already have reached Ulster, and taken on the colonists," Fortune replied. "They are probably even now sailing toward their rendezvous with Leonard Calvert. He has surely embarked by now."

And indeed Lord Baltimore's expedition had departed Graves-end, but they did not get far. Cecil Calvert had been wise to remain in England. His enemies were spreading rumors that his two ships, the Ark and the Dove, were actually sending nuns and soldiers to Spain. Lord Baltimore had to go to court to defend himself, and his expedition. His vessels were stopped by a royal naval ship, and forced to put into Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. There they sat for almost a month before finally being allowed to proceed on their journey. The master of the Ark, knowing that the Cardiff Rose was waiting off Cape Clear, had sent word to Kieran Devers via an outbound ship. He explained the delay, suggesting that the Cardiff Rose proceed to Barbados where they would await Lord Baltimore's expedition which would shortly follow.

On November twenty-second the colonists bound for Mary's Land departed at long last. England was hardly out of sight when they were caught in a violent storm, but once it had passed they had perfect weather for the rest of their journey to Barbados, so perfect that the Ark’s captain remarked upon it. He had never known such a smooth crossing. The single violent storm they had encountered had, however, separated them from their traveling companion, the smaller pinnace, the Dove. They could only hope she had survived the gale, and would meet them in Barbados as the Cardiff Rose was to do.

Kieran Devers and his companions sailed across a cloudless blue sea facing the unknown. Day after day the sun shone brightly down on them. The further from Ireland they got, the warmer the air grew. The weather was so fair, and the voyage so smooth, that Mistress Jones and Taffy brought their plants topside, making a small enclosure for them in the bow area of the deck. After six weeks, the Cardiff Rose made landfall in Barbados where they would await the rest of the expedition.

The governor of the island, Sir Thomas Warner, was careful in his welcome. The Cardiff Rose was a member of the O'Malley-Small trading company, and therefore of some small import. Nonetheless it was filled with Irish Catholics. Not enough to cause him any difficulty, but he was indeed concerned. He tendered an invitation to Kieran and the ship's captain for dinner so he might learn more. Kieran gave his colonists leave to visit the island, but warned them they must cause no difficulty, or they would be sent back aboard and forced to remain.

"We must await Lord Calvert. I would be far more comfortable doing it ashore than aboard ship. We still have a long way to go. Any man found drunk will not be allowed ashore again until we reach Mary's Land." Then Kieran Devers went with Captain O'Flaherty to the governor's home.

They were greeted cordially, and sat down to table. Kieran was fascinated by the long bunches of yellow cucumber-shaped growths hanging from trees outside the governor's dining room.

Seeing the direction of his gaze the governor chuckled. "Bananas," he said. "They are called bananas. Peel away the yellow outer skin, and inside is a sweet fruit not unlike the taste of marmalade. I'll give you some to bring back aboard ship."

"We're remaining on the island while we await the arrival of Lord Baltimore's expedition, my lord. If we have your permission, of course," Kieran answered him. "We have been at sea for weeks, and are not sailors used to the water. My men are mostly farmers."

"Where are you bound for, if I may ask?" the governor inquired.

"Lord Baltimore's new colony of Mary's Land," Kieran told him.

" 'Tis only for Catholics, I am told," Sir Thomas replied.

"Nay, sir, Mary's Land is for all men of goodwill, be they Catholic or Protestant," Kieran told him earnestly. "None will be persecuted. That is why we are going, my lord, but many who travel with Leonard Calvert are Protestants."

"Don't like the idea of a Catholic colony," the governor grumbled. "We've got too much trouble with the Spanish here as it is."

"Mary's Land is not a Spanish colony, my lord. It is an English colony. We are all loyal subjects of his majesty. Did you know that my wife's half-brother is the king's honored nephew?"

"Indeed?" The governor looked a bit skeptical.

"Lord Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy," Kieran said. "They call him the not-so-royal Stuart."

"Ah, yes, I recall something about Prince Henry having a bastard," Sir Thomas responded. "The mistress was a pretty wench as I remember now. Dark hair, and eyes like the turquoise sea."

"My mother-in-law, the duchess of Glenkirk," Kieran said, "although she was not wed to James Leslie when she was the prince's beloved friend."

"You're welcome to remain on the island itself as long as your people don't cause us any difficulties," the governor told Kieran.

"Thank you, my lord," Kieran said politely, and turned his attention to his meal.

"Nicely done, sir," Captain O'Flaherty said softly with a wink. "The family would be proud of you."

Kieran looked at the captain, and the eyes twinkling back at him were familiar. "God's blood!" he swore softly. "You're one of them, aren't you?"

"Ualtar O'Flaherty, son of Ewan, grandson of the great Skye, great-grandson of Dubhdara himself," was the smiling reply. "Your wife and I are cousins, although I have never had the pleasure of meeting her or any of her nearest kin. I only met my grandmother, Skye, twice in my lifetime. My father is the Master of Ballyhenessey in Ireland. I'm the only one of his sons who felt the urge to go to sea. My grandmother saw to it that I could have my heart's desire as she did for several of my cousins. Various of us have been master of the Cardiff Rose. She's a fine, safe vessel. Mostly I've been on the Mediterranean run. We call in at various times at Algiers, San Lorenzo, Marseilles, Naples, Venice, Athens, Alexandria, Istanbul."

"Why didn't I know who you were?" Kieran wondered aloud.

"Was it important to you, sir?" Captain O'Flaherty asked.

Kieran laughed. " 'Tis a strange lot, this family I've married into, Ualtar O'Flaherty," he said.

"Aye, sir, and that's a truth," the captain agreed cheerfully.

It had been early December when they reached Barbados. They kept their Christmas there. There was no priest to celebrate the mass for them, so they sang songs and said their prayers quietly. A feast was arranged for the men on the beach where a pit was dug, and a large pig was purchased in the marketplace for roasting. A platter with bananas, muskmelon, pineapple, and watermelon was served along with roasted yams. Other than the pig, these were foods unfamiliar to the colonists. They tasted them reluctantly, and then discovering that they were good, ate with enthusiasm.

In early January the Ark reached Barbados, and was welcomed by the men aboard the Cardiff Rose. As Kieran Devers and his men before them, those aboard the Ark were amazed and enchanted by the exotic and brilliant flowers and trees growing on the island. The raucous and wildly colored birds were also fascinating. A mass of thanksgiving was held aboard the Ark which was attended by all the Catholics. The Protestant colonists went ashore to attend the governor's church.

Over the next few weeks they loaded up the vessels with seed corn, potatoes, and as many other food supplies as they could find room for, squirreling them away in every available nook and cranny. The water barrels were all refilled. To their delight the Dove arrived in the harbor along with a large merchantman, the Dragon. When the storm had hit, they had returned to shelter in a safe English harbor until it passed before beginning their journey again. Everyone who had started out with Leonard Calvert's expedition was now accounted for, and they were now ready to head north for Mary's Land. The governor of Barbados was openly relieved to see them go. He, like so many others, could not rid himself of the idea that English and Irish Catholics were loyal to their Catholic brethren in Spain rather than England's Protestant king.

They reached the Virginias in March. Although Lord Baltimore had advised against having anything to do with the Virginians, whose representatives at court were doing all in their power to stop the Mary's Land colony, Leonard Calvert had a message for Virginia's governor from the king, as well as some gifts for him that he wished to personally deliver. The colonists stayed nine days in Virginia, and the Virginians were extremely cordial much to Governor Calvert's surprise. When they left they took along a local fur trader, Captain Fleet, to serve them as a translator with the Indians, and a guide, for he knew the Chesapeake country well.

As their ships traversed Chesapeake Bay, the colonists stood at the ship's rails viewing their new home for the first time. The forests were magnificent, filled with both hard and soft woods. Kieran Devers knew he had finally come home, and was astounded by the certainty and confidence he felt in his heart. How he wished that Fortune had been able to come with them so they might see it for the first time together; but when she did come, he would have a home ready for her. He knew she was going to love it every bit as much as he already did. He hurried to his cabin to write her a letter. Once they were settled, the Cardiff Rose would be returning back to England, and he wanted it to carry his thoughts to Fortune. He had written them down each day so she could share all she had missed. He wondered if his son was born yet.

They made their first landfall on an uninhabited island that they called St. Clement. The Indians that had lined the shores to the east and the west the past few days were gone now. A tall cross made from newly felled tree trunks was planted. Governor Calvert's priest, Father White, said a solemn mass. Afterward Leonard Calvert took possession of Mary's Land in the name of God, King Charles I, and his brother, Lord Cecil Baltimore. It was the twenty-fifth day of March in the year sixteen hundred and thirty-four.

And on that very day at Queen's Malvern Fortune went into labor shortly after midnight. Her child was, by all calculations, late by at least a week. Fortune was thankful her mother was with her for poor Rois, about to have her own child, was of no use at all.

Jasmine took one look at the young maidservant's face as she entered her daughter's bedchamber, and said, "Get out! Send Rohana and Toramalli to me at once."

Rois sent the duchess a grateful look, and scurried out as best she could, given her own girth at the moment.

"Jesu, it hurts!" Fortune said. "I never realized how much it would hurt. When India went into labor, I rode off to fetch you and Papa. Owww! How long will it take, Mama?"

"Get up," Jasmine said. "We'll walk together for awhile, and see if we can speed up your travail, poppet. Alas, I'm sorry to tell you that bairns being born are neither practical or sensible. They come when they come, and that is the truth of it."

" 'Tis not particularly encouraging, Mama," Fortune muttered.

The bedchamber door opened, and Jasmine's twin servants entered the room.

"Young Bramwell would like to know, my lady, where you would like the birthing table set up," Rohana said.

"Bring it in here and set it by the fireplace. And see the cradle is brought as well as water, cloths, and swaddlings," Jasmine said. She was beginning to be assailed by memories. Her son, Charlie, had been born here at Queen's Malvern. His father, Prince Henry, had been with them. At first he had stood behind her, bracing her shoulders, encouraging her with soft words, massaging her distended belly with gentle hands. He seemed to have an instinct as to what to do, although he later admitted he had never before seen a child born. And when it was obvious that Jasmine was about to deliver, he had called Adali to take his place, and gone around the table, pushed her grandmother Skye aside, and birthed Charlie with his own hands. Jasmine felt the tears coming, and turned away quickly. Henry Stuart had been such a sweet man.

"Mama!" Fortune cried out. "I do not think I can walk another step. The pains are getting worse, and they are coming so quickly now."

It was now almost dawn, and Fortune had been laboring to bring forth her child for several hours now.

"Let us help you onto the birthing table," Jasmine said.

Fortune struggled onto the table with Toramalli's aid while Rohana went behind her to brace her shoulders.

"I saw your mother born, and your brothers and sisters," Rohana said. "Now I am to see your child born, my lady Fortune. I am so sorry you will be leaving us. I will not get to see the other children you will bear that fine young husband of yours."

"Ihate him!" Fortune shouted. "How could he do this to me, and then go galivanting off to the New World while I am left to suffer like this? Owww! Will this child not be born? Mama, it's been hours!"

"You sound more like India than Fortune," Jasmine said. "I told you the child will come when it comes, and not before."

Several hours passed, and in midafternoon the baby's head finally appeared. Jasmine encouraged her daughter to push forth the child. Slowly. Slowly. The full head and the shoulders appeared. Then with a mighty push the child slid from its mother's womb. Its eyes flew open to meet those of its grandmother, and then opening its mouth the child howled with outrage.

"It's a little girl," Jasmine said, sounding simply delighted.

"It is?" Fortune was exhausted, and relieved. "Let me see her, Mama." She held out her arms.

Jasmine put the baby into her daughter's arms, and Fortune shrieked.

"She's all bloodied, Mama! Is she injured?"

"Birthing is a bloody business as my grandmother once told Prince Henry," Jasmine replied. "We'll clean her up in a minute. She's fine. A healthy little lass. Just listen to her cry, bless her."

Fortune looked down at the red-faced infant in her arms. Her small face was scrunched tightly with her anger, and her eyes were closed although her mouth was wide open as she roared, apparently affronted. "Shhhh, baby," Fortune ventured her first words to her child. The baby suddenly ceased crying, and opening her eyes looked directly into her mother's eyes. Fortune felt a sudden jolt, and was instantly filled with an overwhelming love for this child. "Her eyes are blue," she said wonderingly.

"All babies' eyes are blue," Jasmine said dryly. "Surely you remember that, being my third eldest, poppet."

"She's bald," Fortune observed.

"The girls usually are," Jasmine replied. "There's a bit of reddish fuzz, however, see." She gently touched the baby's head. "What are you going to call her?"

"Aine," Fortune said. "I'm going to name her after Kieran's little sister. I didn't expect a lass, Mama. I thought I was to have a son, and I was going to name him James, after Papa, but somehow I just know this wee lass of mine should be called Aine. Aine Mary Devers is what I shall baptize her." She kissed the baby's small head. "And I shall baptize her a Catholic, for I know her father would want it."

"You can't bring a priest into your brother's house considering his position," Jasmine said. "She must be baptized in England's church. When you and Aine get to Mary's Land, Fortune, you can do whatever you please. Here in England, however, you will follow the law of the land even as the queen does. Is that understood?"

Fortune nodded.

"Now let me have my granddaughter back for she must be cleaned, and you have yet to give me the afterbirth. We will plant it beneath an oak tree on the estate so that Aine Mary Devers will always be strong." Jasmine took the child, and gave it to Toramalli. Then she encouraged her second daughter to finish the business of birthing. And when mother and newborn were properly cleaned up, Fortune tucked into her bed, Aine in her cradle by the fire with the faithful Rohana seated next to her to watch over her, Jasmine brought her daughter a strengthening drink.

Slowly Fortune sipped it down. She was suddenly so worn, and very, very sleepy. Her eyes closed, and Jasmine just caught the half-empty goblet as it was about to fall from Fortune's hand. She smiled down at her child. How the years had flown, but she was grateful that she had been able to be with Fortune at this time. Soon her child would be gone from her. It was unlikely they would ever meet again for, Jasmine thought, I am not of a mind to cross any more oceans. She caressed Fortune's smooth forehead lovingly, then she crossed the chamber to look at her new granddaughter. The child was fair even as her mother had been. Kieran Devers wouldn't be disappointed, and there would be plenty of time for sons when Fortune got to Mary's Land.

"Watch for a bit, Rohana," she said to her serving woman. "I'll send Joan, or Polly to relieve you in a little while."

"Yes, my lady," Rohana replied. "She's a fine little lass, isn't she? I'm sorry we won't get to see her grow up."

Jasmine sighed. "I am too," she replied, "but Aine has her own fate, and only time will tell us what it is."

Chapter 16

"Mama! Mama! The captain of the Cardiff Rose is here!" Fortune called excitedly. "Oh, sir, we thought you should never come! Tell me how my husband is, please! When are we to leave for Mary's Land?" She whirled about. "Rois! We must start packing!"

"Captain O'Flaherty? I am Jasmine Leslie," the duchess of Glenkirk said as she came forward, her hand outstretched.

Ualter O'Flaherty took the elegant hand, and kissed it. "We are cousins, madame, having the glorious Skye O'Malley in common for a grandmother. As we have never met, I wanted to come personally to deliver Kieran's messages to his wife, and to you. I hope you will forgive my unannounced arrival." He bowed smartly, and smiled at the two women, thinking that his cousin, Jasmine's, beauty had not been exaggerated. The garnet red gown she wore certainly complemented her dark hair and exotic turquoise blue eyes. And Kieran's wife was equally beautiful with her red hair, and blue-green eyes so like his own, so like Skye O'Malley's.

"You are more than welcome, Cousin. You must be one of my hardly-ever-seen Uncle Ewan's sons, are you not?" Jasmine asked.

"His youngest son, and next to last child," the captain said.

"Tell us of Mary's Land," Fortune said.

"I think we should offer our cousin some refreshment first, and ask him to sit by the fire," the duchess told her daughter. "June is such a fussy month. Warm one minute, and cold the next. It has been raining for three days now. It must have been a chilly ride."

"Being at sea teaches one to get used to all weather, especially the inclement, madame," he replied with a smile, taking a goblet of wine as it was offered to him.

They sat down by the blazing fire in the hall, and the captain handed Fortune a large packet.

"What is it?" she wondered aloud, taking it from him.

"Your husband kept a daily record of his experiences, and he has sent it to you along with a letter, my lady Fortune," Ualter O'Flaherty said. He sipped the wine appreciatively.

"Is he well?" Fortune asked softly.

"He was in the best of health and spirits when I left him, my lady. The crossing was the best, I am told by the other captains more familiar with an Atlantic crossing, that any of them had ever had. The Virginians welcomed us, and the land that has become Mary's Land is beautiful beyond measure, but your husband's diary will tell you everything you need to know, my dear lady. We have brought back a cargo of salt fish from the Plymouth colony, which we called in on during our return journey, as well as beaver and fox furs. It will make the round trip a profitable one for you, my lady."

"You will remain with us for a few days, Cousin," Jasmine extended the invitation.

"I would be honored, madame," he answered her.

Fortune tore open the packet as they talked. It was a great temptation to read Kieran's letter first, but instead she began to read the journal of his travels, knowing he had written it in order to make her a part of the voyage she could not take, but soon would. She read the afternoon through, and the servants were setting the high board for the evening meal when she finally opened her husband's letter. She read it through, swearing softly under her breath as she did. Then she turned to Captain O'Flaherty.

"Do you know what is in this letter, Cousin?" she asked him.

"I do," he said.

"And you agree with my husband's assessment of the situation? Has he not made the situation a bit worse than it actually is? I expect Kieran wants everything perfect for me when I arrive, but it doesn't have to be perfect, sir," Fortune said.

"Nay, my lady Fortune. He has not equivocated in the least. Mary's Land is a wilderness, and the western shore where its first settlement is, is a forested region. There is much work to be done to make it habitable for civilized folk. The few women who came aboard the Ark and the Dove are putting up with a great deal of hardship."

Fortune pressed her lips together, irritated. This was not what she wanted to hear.

"What is it?" Jasmine asked her daughter.

"Kieran doesn't want us to come until next summer," she said. "The land has not yet been divided, and he claims they are living in an Indian village with the savages. I knew I should have gone!"

Jasmine looked to Captain O'Flaherty.

"We only arrived in late March," he began. "The main expedition was delayed on the Isle of Wight for over a month. Governor Calvert sent word to the Cardiff Rose, which was waiting off Cape Clear, to go ahead and meet them in Barbados. We took the southern, and rather roundabout route because of the unreliability of late autumn weather."

"A wise precaution," Jasmine agreed.

"The Ark did not arrive until January. Then the Dove straggled in ten days later. By the time we had taken on fresh water and supplies, and sailed through the Caribbean, and up the coast past the Spanish colonies, it was already spring. We stopped in at the Virginias, remained for several days, and then went on to Mary's Land. It was on the twenty-fifth day of March the colony was founded."

"Aine's birthday!" Fortune said.

"Aine?" He looked puzzled.

"Aine Mary Devers, my daughter," was the reply. "The child I remained to bear," she explained. "I bore a lass on March twenty-fifth, and Rois, my serving woman, Kevin's wife, bore a son, Brendan, two days later on March twenty-seventh."

"Your husband will be delighted," Ualter O'Flaherty said. "He fretted a great deal about you, and the bairn. I can't wait to see the look on his face when I tell him."

"I shall tell him myself," Fortune said.

"Wait, poppet," her mother said. "I want to know more about the living conditions in Mary's Land right now. Cousin?"

"The colonists found a village of Wicocomoco Indians on a small river north of the Potomac. The governor liked the region, and asked permission of the local chief to settle there. The area is well-watered and has a suitable deep water anchorage for seagoing vessels. The Indians have been having difficulties with a larger tribe, the more war-like Susquehanocks. They had been planning to move their village to another location. They agreed to share the village with us in return for our protection until they could relocate. The settlers are living in Indian wigwams, which are made of grasses, mud, sticks, and animal skins. It's primitive, and it's rough. When the Indians have finally gone, the colonists must build a fortification first with a guardhouse, a palisade, and a storeroom for the food. Such work requires all the men working together. No one can begin to build themselves a house until the fort is raised.

"Even now the Cardiff Rose is onloading more supplies for the colony. The governor has given orders that no more women, and certainly no children, be brought over until next year when the colony is on a more stable footing. Your husband was going down to Virginia to purchase livestock and poultry for everyone when I left. His men are working hard. Mistress Jones and Taffy have been a godsend to the colony. That is the truth of what is happening, Cousin."

"If the governor has given orders that you cannot go, Fortune," Jasmine said, "then you cannot. It is just that simple. You can either come home with me to Glenkirk, or remain at Queen's Malvern. I know Charlie will not mind if we stay. I will remain with you, of course, until it is time for you to go, poppet."

"How can you bear to be so far for so long from Papa?" Fortune said. "Nay, Mama, you must return to Glenkirk."

"Your father will not mind an English summer as long as he is back in Scotland for the grouse hunting season," Jasmine chuckled. She had no intention of leaving Fortune. While this second daughter had never been as willful as her first, she would not put it past Fortune to dash to Liverpool and stow herself, Rois, and the babies aboard the Cardiff Rose. It was not going to happen. Her daughter would wait until Governor Calvert said it was time for the other women and children to come to Mary's Land. "You had best write to Rory Maguire so he may tell the women what is happening. Explain the primitive living conditions, and that they are to prepare to leave next summer," the duchess suggested.

"I still think Governor Calvert is being too damned cautious," Fortune complained.

Jasmine smiled blandly. " 'Twill be better for the bairns this way," she reasoned.

"But not for Rois and me," her daughter grumbled beneath her breath. "I miss my husband in my bed, and Rois misses Kevin, too."

Both Jasmine and Ualter O'Flaherty laughed at this frank comment.

"I'm happy to see the women in this family remain hot-blooded," the captain remarked, and then chuckled richly as Fortune blushed.

James Leslie came down from Glenkirk to join his wife and daughters. Holding his new granddaughter in his arms he approved of her fully, and said so. His youngest daughter hid her face behind her small hands each time she saw her sire in the first two weeks he was at Queen's Malvern. Then suddenly one day Autumn bestowed a sweet smile upon her father, and they were friends. He was very relieved for he had developed a very soft spot in his heart for this wee lass of his own blood. He had not known either India or Fortune when they were this small.

"I want you to come home with me in September," he said to his wife one evening as they sat together in the hall.

"I'm afraid to leave Fortune alone," Jasmine said. "I fear she will seek out the first ship sailing for the New World, and try to join Kieran. She misses him terribly."

"She is a grown woman," the duke said. "I will gain her word of honor that she will wait for the Cardiff Rose to take her next year, darling Jasmine. I want you back at Glenkirk. If you and Autumn remain here, my wee lass will forget me again. I cannot stay, and leave Patrick alone so much. He needs our guidance if he is to one day take my place. You must come home."

"Nay, my Jemmie, I must stay. Once Fortune is gone from me, when shall I see her ever again? Autumn is just going to be two. Go back to Glenkirk in September, and come back to us before Christmastide. Patrick is a man now, and can manage alone without you. Can you go back to Scotland at summer's end knowing you will never again see Fortune? We need you with us, my love. 'Tis only a few months."

He acquiesced as she had known he would. The summer came, and in late August the duke of Glenkirk returned to Scotland, promising to come back in December. Charlie had joined them over the summer. Now he returned to court to support the king in his never-ending battle with the Puritans. They were growing stronger every year, and openly disapproved of everything about the king, and his French Catholic queen, despite the fact she had already borne her husband and the kingdom four children, of which three were living, two being boys, and was again expecting a child. Even the baptism of each prince and princess in England's church did not satisfy them. Parliament had been dissolved several years prior, but the Puritans still grew more difficult and condemning of the king.

In October a gentleman came riding up to the front entry of Queen's Malvern. He introduced himself as Sir Christian Denby, and told them he had just inherited a small estate nearby.

"I did not know that Sir Morton Denby had a son," the duchess remarked, taking in the measure of the young man before her. He was dressed quite simply and severely in black with a starched white collar.

"He did not, madame. I am his brother's younger son. Uncle was generous enough to leave Oakley to me, as my elder brother will inherit our father's holdings one day. Having come to inspect my estate, I thought I would call upon my neighbors."

"I am sorry my son, the duke of Lundy, is not here to meet you, Sir Christian," Jasmine said. "His uncle, the king, requires him at court much of the year. I am the duchess of Glenkirk, and this is my daughter, Lady Lindley."

Sir Christian bowed, then accepted a small goblet of wine offered him by Adali. "You live here, madame?" The query was bold, but Jasmine chose to be amused rather than offended. Obviously this young man was attempting to get the lay of the land. He could only do so directly as he was not familiar with the surrounding area.

"Only in the summer months, sir. My home is in Scotland, but my daughter has been here while her husband is in the New World. Since she cannot join him until next year I have decided to remain with her and her infant. I have brought my youngest child with me for she is too young to be separated from her mam. And your wife, sir? She is with you?"

"I have not yet had the pleasure of connubial bliss, madame," he told her, and Fortune swallowed back a giggle. "Finding a wife in this day and age is not an easy task. I wish a lady who will be content to remain in the country. She must be godly in her devotions, modest in her dress and speech, obedient to my will, able to run my household properly, give me well-mannered sons and daughters, and have a respectable dowry. I find many of today's young women irreverent, flighty, and far too bold."

"You are a Puritan then," Jasmine said pleasantly.

"I am," he replied half-defiantly, as if he expected her to render some sort of criticism.

"We are Anglican," Jasmine noted.

"Your husband is in the Virginias?" Sir Christian turned to Fortune, who had Aine in her lap at that moment.

"Mary's Land, sir," Fortune said.

"The Catholic colony? The king should have never allowed such a thing, and would not have but for the wicked intrigues of his queen and her friends! Your husband is a Catholic then."

"My husband is a Catholic," Fortune replied, "but Mary's Land is a place where all men and women of good will may live in peace. Most of its colonists are Protestants, sir."

"So they would have you believe, madame, but we know the truth. Lord Baltimore hopes to invade the Virginias, and gain them for the Spanish who are his allies," Sir Christian said venomously.

Fortune laughed aloud. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, sir. You are a fool to listen to such rumors, and it is wrong to repeat such false gossip."

"Then why, madame, if I may be so bold, are you not with your husband?" Her antagonist's black eyes were brazenly questioning.

"Because, sir, there is currently no decent housing for us. I go in the spring, by which time that situation will be remedied."

Sir Christian looked at Aine. Reaching out he tipped her tiny chin up. "Your babe will be raised a Catholic?"

Aine took one look at the man and burst into tears.

"Take your hand off my daughter, sir," Fortune said quietly, and then she comforted the baby softly.

"We are pleased to have met you, sir," the duchess said, dismissing Sir Christian as politely as she could.

He arose. "How can you allow your own grandchild to be raised a Catholic?" he said low.

"You are, sir, far too brazen with your queries, and out of your depth, I fear," the duchess of Glenkirk said.

With a sketchy bow Sir Christian Denby left the hall.

Aine had at last stopped crying. "What an unpleasant man," Fortune remarked. "I hope we do not have to see him again."

Autumn Leslie celebrated her second birthday at the end of October. Jasmine and Fortune then journeyed two days overland to Cadby to meet the young woman Henry Lindley was considering as a wife. He would not tell his mother her name, teasing her in their correspondence that it was to be a surprise. And indeed it was. Henry Lindley had chosen for his bride Cecily Burke, daughter of Lord Burke of Clearfields, his mother's uncle. Cecily was three years younger than Henry; a beautiful young woman with her father's dark hair, and the family's blue-green eyes. She was Padraic's and Valentina's youngest daughter.

"But how…?" his mother queried Henry, truly surprised.

"I know," he said. "We hadn't met since we were children at some great party at Queen's Malvern. I went to court last winter at Charlie's behest, and there was Cecily, a maid-of-honor to the queen because she speaks such perfect French. I fear, Mama, it was love at first sight. I have been to Clearfields several times, and Cecily and her family have been here at Cadby a number of times."

"And you never told me!" Jasmine didn't know if she should be angry or not, but Fortune laughed.

"Why Henry, I should have never taken you for a romantic," she teased her big brother.

"Ohh, Cousin," Cecily said quickly, "he is most romantic!"

They all laughed at the ingenuous remark by the bride-to-be.

"Uncle," Jasmine turned to Padraic Burke, "could you not have said something?'You are still capable of writing, and do not look either infirm or slow of wit to me."

"What was I to say?" Lord Burke demanded. "I could be certain of nothing until this son of yours asked my permission. He was quite concerned because they are cousins, but they are not first cousins, and so I feel the consanguinity is of little import. But tell me, Niece, what your opinion is on this matter?"

"I am content with my son's choice, although actually Cecily and I belong to the same generation, Uncle, for you are my mother's older brother," Jasmine noted.

Cecily Burke laughed, and her eyes twinkled. "Then," she said mischievously, "the children Henry and I have will be his generation, will they not, madame?"

"God's blood!" the marquess of Westleigh said, which caused his family to burst into great laughter.

A party was held to celebrate the betrothal, and to Fortune's surprise Sir Christian Denby was there. Attaching himself to Fortune he remained by her side all evening, although she attempted to dismiss him coolly.

"You should not be unescorted, madame," he told her.

"I am in my brother's house," Fortune replied.

"Your neckline is far too low," he said, but he could scarce take his eyes from her cleavage.

"Does the sight of my breasts disturb you, sir?" she mocked him. "You are free to look away, I assure you."

"How can I when you display your wares so boldly for all to see," he responded. "Are you seeking to take a lover in your husband's absence, madame? I am told your mother once displayed such proclivities."

Fortune gasped, shocked, and not certain for a moment that she had heard Sir Christian correctly, but then he spoke again.

"Was she not Prince Henry's whore, madame?" he said.

Fortune slapped her companion as hard as she might, but aware of the place, she then turned and walked away. Immediately Henry Lindley was at his sister's side.

"What has happened?" he demanded.

"Why did you invite that man to your house?" Fortune asked.

"He is the cousin of one of my neighbors, and new to the vicinity. He is wife hunting, and my neighbor thought such a gathering at Cadby would be an ideal place for Sir Christian to observe the local belles. What is the matter, Fortune? Why did you slap the man?"

"Because he has insulted me, and he has insulted Mama as well, Henry." Then she went on to tell her brother what Sir Christian Denby had said to her. "He is a Puritan, Henry. I should not have him in the house, but you must not spoil Cecily's night by causing a scene and escorting the blackguard from your house. Just keep him away from me!"

Back at Queen's Malvern Sir Christian Denby paid them another call, pushing past the servants into the hall where Jasmine and Fortune sat. "I have come to tender my apologies to you both," he declared.

Fortune stood up. "Get out!" she said angrily. "How dare you invade our home without invitation? You are not welcome here, sir!"

"It is only my concern for you, a woman alone, madame, that causes me to behave so," he said.

"I am hardly alone, sir. My mother and my sister are with me. I have a daughter. The house is full of servants who have known me all my life, and my stepfather will be shortly coming down from Scotland to spend the months until I leave with us. 1 am not alone!"

"I must speak with you alone, Lady Lindley. I fear for your child. You must not raise her Catholic lest you condemn her sinful soul without hope of salvation, and into an eternal hellfire," Sir Christian Denby said earnestly.

"If you believe that, sir, then I feel very sorry for you," Fortune said angrily. "What sort of God do you worship? My daughter is innocent of any sin, as are all bairns. Get out! Do not come back!"

"Adali," Jasmine said quietly. "Escort the gentleman from the house, and see he is not allowed entry ever again."

"Yes, my princess," Adali replied, coming abreast of the unwelcome guest and conducting him swiftly from the hall.

"My God!" Fortune said despairingly. "What makes people think like that, Mama? Why is there such hate in the world for another faith, another clan? I will never understand such thoughts!"

"Nor I, nor did your grandfather," Jasmine said quietly. "I suppose we must pity Sir Christian, who certainly does not live up to his name."

"He frightens me, Mama. And his harping on Aine's salvation. He spoke of it to me at Cadby before he insulted us. I do not want him anywhere near my child. He is evil!"

Personally Jasmine agreed with her daughter, but she said nothing, instead soothing Fortune as best she could. She advised Adali, however, that her granddaughter was to be watched carefully at all times.

James Leslie came down from Scotland just before the twelve days of Christmas began. Henry came from Cadby with Cecily and her parents, for it had been decided that the young couple would wed on December thirty-first in the chapel at Queen's Malvern. The celebration made for a happy time, bringing back to them all the many family gatherings that had once been held at Queen's Malvern in the time of Skye O'Malley and her husband, Adam de Marisco. The family chapel, that had seen several weddings in its day, was warm with winter sunlight. Little Autumn Leslie preceded the bride in her first public duty.

Reaching the altar rail, she suddenly turned about and said in a tiny piping voice, "Mama, where do I go now?"

A chuckle arose from the assembled guests, and Charles Frederick Stuart, home for Henry's wedding, quickly picked his baby sister up and said softly to her, "Why into my arms, my lady Autumn, is where you go now." And when Autumn smiled sweetly at him, Charlie wondered if perhaps he shouldn't start giving thought to finding a wife himself, but as swiftly decided that perhaps he was still too young. After all, Henry was practically twenty-six, and he was only just twenty-two.

The winter set in, and while the days were once again growing longer, the winds were cold, and the snow blew gustily about the house on many a day. Still, by the time Aine Mary Devers celebrated her first birthday there were daffodils in the gardens of Queen's Malvern. In all the time since Captain O'Flaherty had come calling last summer, there had been no word at all from Kieran. Still, Fortune knew her time in England was coming to an end. Then one day they had a visitor.

"I am Johnathan Kira," he introduced himself. "I am in charge of the family's business in Liverpool, my lady." It was Jasmine to whom he spoke. "I am informed by our people in Ireland, that your daughter's vessel, the Cardiff Rose, was sighted a hundred nautical miles, or perhaps slightly more, off Cape Clear a week ago. I thought I would come to Queen's Malvern to see how I may be of help to Lady Fortune now that she is about to leave for Mary's Land, and also to ask a favor."

"What is the favor, Master Kira?" Fortune inquired.

"First a question or two, my lady," came the smiling reply. "Is it really true that Mary's Land is for all men, no matter their faith? And if that is so, would you allow my second son, Aaron, to travel with your party? If there is a place where he will not be persecuted, then the Kira family is of a mind to set up a branch of its business in the New World. Would a Jew be welcome in Mary's Land?"

"I can only tell you what I know myself," Fortune said. "Lord Baltimore himself told us that all people, no matter their religious faith, would be welcome in Mary's Land. If that is so, then surely there is a place for your son, sir. I will be more than happy to offer him passage on the Cardiff Rose when I sail. Your family has done business with my family, and my stepfather's family, for many generations."

"I thank you, my lady," Johnathan Kira bowed.

"Ye'll stay wi us the night," the duke said.

"I am grateful, my lord, for your hospitality," came the reply. "However, you must not be offended if I eat only the foodstuffs I have brought with me. Our dietary laws are quite strict, and when I travel I must bring my own food lest I violate them."

"What will your son do aboard ship then, sir?" Fortune asked him. "We will be at sea several weeks."

"He, too, will bring his food with him. When and if he runs out, he will do his best to keep to our code. In extraordinary circumstances it can be forgiven when a man must break the law," Johnathan Kira explained to Fortune. "Besides, Aaron is young, and his conscience does not often trouble him over any matter." He smiled at her.

Adali hurried into the hall, and going to Jasmine he bent and whispered in his mistress's ear. Jasmine grew visibly pale.

"What is it?" the duke asked his wife.

Jasmine looked to her daughter, anguished. "Rois has been found in the garden where she was with the children. She was unconscious. Brendan was safe in his basket asleep, but Aine is missing."

"Oh, God!" Fortune cried, jumping up.

"Is Rois conscious yet?" the duke demanded of Adali.

"She is coming around, my lord, but the blow to her head was a hard one. 'Tis fortunate she wasn't killed, I think. We have carried her into the house, and Polly is sitting with her. Brendan yet slumbers."

"Sir Christian Denby," Fortune said angrily. "I shall kill him when I find him, and I will!"

"What?" her mother said. "What is this you say, Fortune?"

"Aine has been stolen by Sir Christian Denby. I am certain of it! All he has done in the time we have been acquainted with him is fret that my daughter would be raised a Catholic. The man is a fanatic, Mama. You, yourself, recognized that."

"You canna accuse him wiout proof, lass," the duke told her.

"What kind of proof would you have me bring before you, Papa? My instinct tells me it is Sir Christian. Who else would take Aine? And why? Are the women of this region so bereft of bairns that they would dare to steal mine? Or perhaps you think it gypsies? There have been none hereabouts. It is that man! Every fiber of my being tells me this is so, Papa. You must mount a party of your men at once and find him, and my child," Fortune said angrily. "I will ride with you."

"Your daughter is most certainly correct," Johnathan Kira said quietly. "My lord, if you will allow me to speak. There have been rumors about this man for some time now."

"Rumors of what sort?" the duke asked.

"Infants, and small children, my lord. Catholic, Anglican, even a Jew or two, all who have disappeared while Sir Christian Denby was in the vicinity. Usually these have been the children of unimportant people who had neither the power, the authority, or the wealth to complain or seek their children out. It is said these children are placed with loyal Puritan families to be raised properly. I believe Lady Fortune's instincts to be absolutely correct in this particular instance. With your, with her permission, I should like to ride over to Oakley to speak with the gentleman in question."

"What can ye do to help us?" the duke demanded.

"Let us say, my lord, that I may have a small influence with Sir Christian. Time is of the essence, my lord. He will not have yet had time to dispose of your granddaughter. There are no Puritan families in the near vicinity. He will have to take her somewhere else. It is too late in the day for him to begin his travels, my lord. Let me help, if indeed I can."

Before James Leslie might say another word, Fortune said, "Go, Master Kira. Go now, and bring my daughter back."

Johnathan Kira bowed politely to Fortune, and then, turning, hurried from the hall.

James Leslie smiled a cynical smile as he watched the man go. The Kiras were an amazing family. He didn't doubt for a moment that if Sir Christian Denby had Aine in his custody, she would be returned to them this very night. "Adali," he called. "Send some of the men to escort Master Kira, and give him the protection he may need."

With a matching smile of irony, Adali moved quickly to obey.

Johnathan Kira was not surprised to shortly find himself amid a troop of Leslie clansmen. He nodded politely to their captain, and then continued silently on his way. He was a tall, spare man of indeterminate age with dark hair, a dark beard, and fine dark eyes. He wore dark clothing of a most fashionable cut. Those who did not know his smile found him rather intimidating. It was a trait that served him well. Within the hour he was at the front door of Oakley Hall. Dismounting he ordered his companions to await him, and then knocked loudly upon the door.

The door was opened by a liveried servant. "Take me to your master," he said sternly.

Cowed by Johnathan Kira's air of authority the servant obeyed, showing the dark-clothed visitor into his master's library. Just as they entered the room the cry of a child was heard from above-stairs.

Johnathan Kira smiled knowingly to himself, and pushing the servant back into the passageway he closed the library door behind him, saying as he did, "Good evening, Sir Christian."

His host looked up, startled, then jumped up from his chair where he had been reading a tract on the Bible. "Kira! What are you doing here? My loan is not yet due. I will pay you when it is."

"I have come for Aine Devers, Sir Christian," Johnathan Kira said without dissembling. "Give me the child to return to her family, and you and I will have no difficulty."

"I do not know what you mean," Sir Christian said, not looking directly at his uninvited guest.

"Ahh," Johnathan Kira replied, "you are going to be foolish. How lamentable. You are fortunate the maidservant is not dead, only injured, else you would hang for murder. If you had taken her child, there would have been far less of an outburst, for the little boy is a Catholic of two Irish parents. Aine Devers, no matter her religion, is the grandchild of a duke, and the niece of several wealthy noblemen, one of whom is the king's nephew. You cannot hope to get away with this particular kidnapping."

"Get out of my house!" Sir Christian blustered.

"Your house?" Johnathan Kira laughed darkly. "Until you pay us back, Sir Christian Denby, it is not your house. I am well within my right, Jew I may be, to call in the loan we have made you. If I do, what will you have then? A worthless title, a mountain of debts, and nothing else. Is your possession of this child worth all of that? How will you help your fellow Puritans to lobby against the king if I strip you of the small power you possess right now through us? Fetch the child at once, and give her to me. If you do not, I shall open the door of this house to the duke's men who have accompanied me this night. They will search, and they will find the child, whom I have already heard crying on an upper floor. Then the matter becomes a public one, and you, sir, are ruined. If, however, you give me the child now, the matter remains private, and we will not call your loan in for some time to come. I have said all I will on the matter. Bring me the child!"

"Devil's spawn!" snarled Sir Christian. "You dirty Jews are all the devil's own!" Then he pushed past Johnathan Kira, saying brusquely, "Follow me, and you shall have what you came for this night!"

With a small smile of triumph Johnathan Kira walked after his host who, going to the foot of the house stairs in the square entry foyer, called up to some nameless soul to bring the baby down to him. The order was quickly obeyed, and a serving woman came into view carrying Aine Devers.

Sir Christian took the baby roughly from the woman, and thrust her into Johnathan Kira's arms. "Here is the child who is now doomed to roast in eternal hellfire!" he spat at his antagonist.

"Thank you," Johnathan Kira said calmly. "And if you read your Bible correctly, Sir Christian, you would discover that we Jews are called God's chosen people. It is also a fact that Yushua of Nazareth, whom you call Jesus, was also a Jew. Good evening to you, sir." Johnathan Kira walked from the house with his prize, and handed her up to the Leslie captain. "Let us return to Queen's Malvern now," he said. Then he chucked the baby under the chin. "You have had quite an adventure, little one," he remarked. "Well, you are safe now, and on your way home to your mother, praise Yahweh!"

"Ma-ma!" Aine said forlornly. "Ma-ma."

He smiled a kindly smile at her, transforming his usually severe features. "Yes, Mistress Aine. You are going home to your mama."

They rode back through the spring twilight, the smells of newly turned earth, early blooming bushes, and flowers, cleansing the air and tickling their nostrils. Fortune was awaiting them at the door, and snatched her child down from the captain's arms, clutching Aine to her bosom, and sobbing softly.

"Ma-ma!" Aine's small voice was now happy.

"Aye, baby, I am your mama, and you are safe home." She kissed Aine's red head. Then her eyes went to Johnathan Kira. "Your son need only come aboard the Cardiff Rose with his personal supplies of food. Everything else he will need will be supplied for him, I promise you. You will transfer immediately one quarter of my funds to his care, Master Kira. And when we are settled in Mary's Land, another quarter is to be transferred. The other half I will leave here in England. You and your son will have my everlasting friendship for what you have done this night. But how?"

"Sir Christian inherited a tumbled-down house, my lady, with his title, but nothing more. He needed funds to restore the house, and invest in a venture that would make him independent enough that he might attract a wife with a good dowry. He came to the Kiras, and now he is in our debt. He had to decide whether he would lose everything he had gained this night, or return your child. Fortunately he chose wisely."

They walked back into the house. "Thank God you were here with us else I might never have regained my daughter without violence," Fortune said softly. She kissed the baby again, and handed her to Rohana to put to bed.

"Your serving woman?"

"She regained consciousness, and told us that Sir Christian and another man, probably his servant, had attacked her. The first blow they hit her with did not render her unconscious, and she saw them. She tried to scream, and they hit her a second time, but she recognized them," Fortune explained. "She will, with rest, be all right, thank God. I do not know how I would have told her Kevin if anything had happened to her. Come into the hall and have a goblet of wine. You can have it, can't you?"

"In my own cup," he chuckled.

"How long have our families been associated?" Fortune asked him curiously. "It has been many years, hasn't it?"

"Aye," he told her. "Your stepfather's revered ancestress, a great and powerful woman, made friends with my revered ancestress, Esther Kira. The two women aided each other in many ways, and through the influence of one, the other grew powerful and wealthy, too. That, I am told, is how it all began over a century ago. Then your mother's grandmother began dealing with us, and we found that she, too, was a woman of great intellect, honor, and ethics. That was over seventy years ago. Then parts of the two families intertwined in marriage, continuing to deal with the Kiras. It has, my lady, been a successful collaboration."

"May it continue to be so in the New World," Fortune told him sincerely with a smile.

"Amen," Johnathan Kira intoned. "Amen to that, my lady."

Chapter 17

Once again Fortune stood at the rail of the Cardiff Rose watching with interest as the landscape of her new homeland came into view. The beauty of it was so incredible that she almost wept. There was this strong feeling of belonging that she had never before experienced. Kieran had been right. This was home. It was unlike anything she had ever before seen. The bays through which they now sailed were huge. The waters very, very blue. Above her the sun shone in a cloudless sky. How different from their departure from England a month and a half ago.

The late spring day had been gray and rainy, and Fortune Lindley Devers had found herself suddenly afraid. She stood with her mother, and the only father she had ever known upon the ship's deck prior to their departure. Jasmine's eyes were red with evidence of weeping although she now seemed calm and in control of herself. Even James Leslie was unusually silent as he held Aine in his arms.

"We'll have to cast off soon, Cousin," Ualtar O'Flaherty said as he joined them. "The tide will shortly be with us." Then he moved away to give them the privacy they so obviously needed.

"Ye'll come back one day to see us," James Leslie said suddenly.

Fortune felt the tears pricking at her eyelids. "I don't think so, Papa," she told him. "I am not brave, or venturesome, like Mama and India. Once I cross the ocean safely, I shall remain where I am, I fear. Remember," she said, giving him a weak smile, "I am the practical and sensible daughter."

"If you had been sensible," Jasmine said almost bitterly, "you would not have fallen in love with Kieran Devers." Her heart was breaking with the certain knowledge that she would never again in her lifetime see this second daughter of hers and Rowan's. Fortune would be as gone from her as surely as Rowan had been gone all these years. Jasmine could feel the anger welling up in her. Then she swallowed it back. It was not Kieran's fault, or Fortune's fault that this situation had come to pass. It was the fault of ignorant and narrow-minded people who could not accept anyone who was in the slightest manner different from them. People who wanted everyone to look alike, to think alike, to worship alike. Joyless souls who could not accept a God of love, but must have a condemning deity of fire and brimstone to worship. She pitied them, but at the same time Jasmine silently cursed them, for it was their intolerance that was causing her daughter to go.

"Mama." Fortune touched her sleeve. "It is time, Mama. You and Papa must go ashore now. We must say good-bye."

Jasmine turned stricken eyes to her daughter. No! the voice in her head cried out, and then Fortune spoke again.

"I am so grateful for you and Papa, for all the good times we have had together. I shall always remember it, Mama, even if I grow to be an old lady. Do not grieve for me. I am doing what I am meant to do. I love Kieran. I will love our new life in Mary's Land. I will send you letters each time the Cardiff Rose makes the journey between there and here. You will hardly notice I am gone. I know that you want me to be happy, Mama." Then Fortune put her arms about her mother, and embraced her tenderly. "Farewell, Mama. Always remember that I love you, and Papa, and all my family here. Do not forget me." She kissed her mother's cheek. Drawing away from Jasmine she bid the duke of Glenkirk an equally tender farewell. "Thank you, Papa, for taking Rowan Lindley's last daughter, and loving her as your very own." Then she kissed him too, quickly turning away lest her own emotions overcome her and she lose what small courage she had, and they all dissolve into a paroxysm of sorrow.

The warm breeze touched her cheek, and Fortune brought herself back to the present. Her eyes were teary with her memories. Their crossing from England had been a relatively easy one. There had been no serious storms, and only a few gray days of drizzling rain. They had first stopped in Ireland to pick up the women and children from Maguire's Ford and Lisnaskea who would be traveling with them. The Highlander had already departed Ulster several days earlier with the horses and other livestock they would be taking to Mary's Land. Still, Rory Maguire was there in Dundalk to greet her, having escorted the colonists himself.

"So, lassie, and yer finally off on yer great adventure," he said, kissing her cheek. "Where is this daughter of yers now? I would see her, Fortune Devers."

Rois came forward with the two children, and Rory's eyes lit up at the sight of them. He took Aine into his arms.

"Ahh," he said softly, "she's a fine lassie, Fortune." Then, as an afterthought, he said to Rois, "Look to the gangway, Rois. Here is yer grandmam. Come aboard, Bride Duffy, and see the fine great-grandson yer lass has had."

"Did you bring the whole village?" Fortune teased him as they walked the deck with Aine.

"Well, Fergus had to drive one of the wagons that brought the women and children, and their goods and chattels. Nothing would do but Bride would come along with him," Rory chuckled, and when he did, Aine laughed too. "So you find that funny, do you?" He tickled her, eliciting even further laughter. His granddaughter! His eyes devoured Aine eagerly, then swept to Fortune. His daughter. 'Twas the last time he would see them, and he had been unable to resist the opportunity to do so. He sighed. Part of him wanted her to know the truth, but he could not, would not destroy her identity to soothe his aching heart. There was always the possibility she would hate him for it. Better the secret remain his burden.

"How are my brothers doing?" Fortune asked him.

"Well," was the reply. "Adam is a man of the earth without a doubt, and Duncan continues to be the scholar. They are both well-liked."

"And the peace holds in Maguire's Ford?"

He nodded. "But nowhere else in Ireland. 'Tis getting worse, Fortune, and it will continue to get worse until the English are gone from our lands."

"Kieran's brother, and his family?" Fortune asked. "I would bring him what news I can."

"Sir William continues his tyrannies from his sickbed. His misfortune has not softened him, but rather made him more vicious. He will, I fear, live to be an old man. It is rumored that even his mother and wife are now afraid of him. As for his daughter, he barely acknowledges her. 'Tis sad, but the man will forever be bitter over losing you, and over losing the use of his legs."

Fortune considered now if she would tell her husband Rory's news, or simply say nothing. A flock of geese flew over the ship's bow towards the western shore. Fortune smiled happily. Soon! Soon she would be in her husband's arms, and it had been so damned long! She wondered what awaited them, for there was no evidence of any civilization along the forested banks of the great bay. They would be landing at St. Mary's Town, the Calvert's settlement, this day. It couldn't be soon enough.

The other women were crowding the rails, peering at the landscape.

"It's all trees."

"Do you see the wild Indians?"

"I don't know which will be worse. Protestants or Indians."

"It's pretty enough."

"Ulster was pretty."

" 'Tis a chance to live in peace, and have our own lands. That's enough for me to leave Ulster!"

"Will there be a priest?"

"Aye, so they say."

"Thank God for that!"

Fortune listened, half-amused. It was good to know these women had been just as nervous as she had been about the voyage, and its eventual end. What would her new home be like? Had the Highlander made the crossing in safety? All of her wordly goods, along with the horses, had been aboard the smaller vessel. And what little the other colonists had was spread between the two vessels. She wondered what Kieran would say when he saw Aine. With God's blessing she intended giving her husband a son as quickly as possible. None of Mama's special potion for now.

"Look!" one of the women suddenly cried out. "I see buildings!"

"There's a church spire!"

"Praise be to God!"

Ualtar O'Flaherty came down from the wheel deck where he had been standing, and smiled at the women. "Well, now, lassies, if you intend looking yer best for yer men, you had best go below now. We'll be shortly landing at St. Mary's Town." Shooing their children before them, the women disappeared below.

Aaron Kira came to join them. " 'Tis a wild place, m'lady. I wonder if there is any business to be had here. Time will tell."

Over the water came the sound of a cannon booming.

"They've sighted us," the captain continued, "and have signaled all their citizens that we'll be docking soon." He turned to Fortune. "Well, Cousin, yer almost home. Kieran will be eagerly awaiting you, I know. It's a very different place yer coming to, Fortune, and you must be prepared. He'll have a house built by now, I know, but it will not be the kind of house you're used to at all. Later, you will have a better one, but this first home will not be at all what you may have envisioned. The conditions are still very primitive."

"You frighten me, Ualter," she answered him.

"I don't mean to," he answered her. " 'Tis just that your new home will be nothing like Queen's Malvern, or your stepfather's castle, or even Erne Rock. 'Twill appear more like a large, rustic cottage."

"As long as I don't have to live in a wigwam as the settlers did last year," she told him. Then she smiled. "This is not the old world, Ualter. I know. 'Twill all be very new, but one thing will not be new. The love Kieran and I have for each other."

"Yer a brave lass," he said.

The Cardiff Rose sailed gracefully into St. Mary's crescent-shaped harbor, and docked shortly thereafter. Fortune and Rois stood holding their children in their arms, their eyes scanning the crowd on the wharf below. About them the other women and children crowded, some of them already weeping with the sight of their men. The gangway was lowered, and Captain O'Flaherty escorted his cousin and her party ashore, but there was no sign of Kieran. Then Kevin appeared, enfolding Rois and Brendan into his arms, his eyes wet with his tears of joy. Fortune waited while they greeted one another with kisses and caresses, Kevin admiring the son he had never seen. Brendan was not certain if he should cry or not at the sight of this big man who was hugging him so hard. Finally Kevin realized that his mistress was waiting silently. He broke away from Rois, and bowed to Fortune.

"Welcome to Mary's Land, m'lady. You'll be pleased to learn that the Highlander docked over a week ago. The horses are already settled in their meadow, and yer goods are safely at Fortune's Fancy."

"Fortune's Fancy?" She looked puzzled.

Kevin grinned. " 'Tis what the master calls the estate, m'lady," he told her. " 'Tis a fine house we've built for you, and the wee lass."

"Where is my husband?" Fortune asked. "Is he all right? Why isn't he here to meet us, Kevin?" Her lovely face was concerned.

" 'Tis that troublesome indentured wench, m'lady. She's been told a hundred times not to wander into the forest, but she did this morning, and managed to get herself lost. Many Moons, the old Wicocomoco medicine man, brought her back, sobbing and howling that she was going to be scalped by the Indians. The master didn't want to leave her alone under the circumstances. He knew you would understand, m'lady."

"Poor girl," Fortune said, but she was not feeling any sympathy at all for this nameless indentured servant who had disobeyed Kieran. Perhaps when the mistress of Fortune's Fancy came home at last the girl could be guided, and learn to behave herself.

"I've brought the wagon, m'lady," Kevin said, interrupting her thoughts. "The ship's crew have loaded the goods you brought on it, and we had best get going. We're about five miles from the town."

"What of the other colonists?" Fortune asked him. "And Master Kira?"

"Their men know where to take them, m'lady," was the reply. "Master Kira, opposite the docks, that small house there"-he pointed-" 'tis been purchased for you, along with an indentured man." Aaron Kira thanked Kevin, kissed Fortune's hand, and bid her farewell before turning to go to his own establishment.

Kevin helped his mistress and his wife up onto the hard wooden seat of the wagon. Each woman held her child. Then climbing up, he signaled the horses to be on their way. Within minutes he and Rois were chattering away. Fortune listened briefly with half an ear, and then her thoughts turned to a husband who would remain with a hysterical servant rather than go to greet the wife he hadn't seen in almost two years. She wondered why she had bothered to dress in her finest gown for him. It seemed to her that Kieran had more care for a servant than his own wife. Had she made a mistake in marrying him? Had she made a mistake in coming across an ocean, and away from her loving family? She would soon find out. If he had changed she would return with Captain O'Flaherty to England in a few weeks. She wouldn't stay where she wasn't wanted or loved. Her fingers brushed the rich blue silk of her gown. The warm breeze blew the feathery white plumes in her hat, and brushed her cheek.

Kieran saw her seated up on the wagon's bench as it came up the dirt drive of the house. The blue of her gown was neither dark nor light. The deep snow-white linen collar edged in lace stood out against it. She wore leather gauntlets trimmed with fine gold lace. He had never seen her in a hat. She was so very elegant. Why on earth had she married him? Why had she traveled all this way to live in this primitive place? Did she still love him? Then he saw the small child, not even a baby, seated in her lap, and garbed identically to her mother. Kieran Devers felt his heart contract, and then seemingly crack. He could scarce find his voice when the wagon finally stopped before him.

"Kieran!" He had forgotten how sweet the sound of her voice was. She smiled, and then said, "I feared for your safety when you did not come to the ship to meet us. Will you not welcome us home, sir?"

"God's blood, I have missed you!" he burst out. The look in his dark blue eyes was burning, and she instantly forgot all her previous doubts, as did he at the sight of her face.

Rois plunked her son in his father's lap, and snatched Aine from her mother, singing a favorite ditty to the startled baby so she would not cry, and her parents could greet each other properly. Rois could well imagine her mistress's hurt that Kieran had not come to the ship.

The master of Fortune's Fancy lifted his wife down, drawing her into his arms, and kissing her passionately. His lips burned against hers. He felt his desire boiling up, and he wished they might slip away to make love for the next week, or two. Her arms about his neck, she pressed herself as tightly against him as she could, sighing with undisguised pleasure as he kissed her mouth, her face, her eyelids over and over again until her knees grew weak, and she cried, "Stop, my love!"

"Ihave missed you," he said in his deep voice. "I thought I knew how much until this moment. Now I realize I knew nothing, and my longing for you was inconsolable. Welcome home, my darling! Welcome home to Fortune's Fancy!" Then he was kissing her again, and she was reveling in his passion for her. It was going to be all right.

"Ma-ma!" Aine's small voice piped out, and there was a distinct sound of annoyance to it. Who was this man who was taking her mama from her?

Kieran and Fortune broke apart, laughing happily, and turning Fortune took her daughter from Rois, and handed her to Kieran.

"This is your papa, darling," she told her daughter.

Aine's eyes surveyed the big man holding her. She put her hands over her face, and then slyly surveyed him through her splayed fingers. "Pa-pa?" she said, tasting the word carefully. Then she began to squirm, demanding, "Down! Down!"

Kieran put the child down.

"No want Pa-pa," Aine said in firm tones, and turning, clung to her mother.

His face was surprised, and then heartbroken. "She doesn't like me," he said, stunned.

Fortune laughed, and turned her daughter over to Rois. "She isn't used to men in her life, that's all. Mama and I lived by ourselves at Queen's Malvern most of the time. When Papa was there he was more interested in courting Autumn, for he adores her, than in fussing over Aine. Our daughter will grow used to you in time, Kieran. Ignore her, and she will come to you, my darling. Now, I want to see my house!"

She stepped back from him, and looked at her new home. It was a story and a half high, constructed from lumber, with three brick chimneys, and a wooden roof. She was pleased to see the windows were of glass with heavy shutters flanking them. Captain O'Flaherty had been correct when he had said it would be different than anything she had ever known, or lived in. It certainly was.

"There's a cellar beneath the house," Kieran said in an effort to elicit some sort of opinion from her on the dwelling. "We'll replace the house eventually with one built of brick, but for now we can just make enough brick for chimneys."

Fortune nodded. Finally she said, "How big is it inside?"

"It has four rooms on the main floor, plus a buttery and small pantry," he told her. "The servants sleep on the upper floor which is not particularly big. Kevin and Rois have their own cottage nearby."

"Servants?" She was surprised, and then she remembered the indentured woman who had kept her husband from her. "How many?"

"In the house three bondwomen, and in the barn four bondmen," he replied. "I purchased them in Virginia last year."

"Are not bondservants transported criminals?" she asked him.

"Some are," he answered her, "but many have been convicted of ridiculous offenses. Then there are those who have assigned themselves into bondage because after seven years of servitude they are freed, and given their own lands. Mrs. Hawkins, who is our cook, could not pay the physician who attended her dying husband. He had her transported. Dolly, who I bought to look after Aine, is a Catholic. Comfort Rogers, the maidservant, was caught stealing bread to feed her siblings. The four men I purchased to help in the fields and with the livestock are all Puritans. Those are their crimes, but they're welcome in Mary's Land. They are all good workers. I would not bring dangerous criminals into the house, my darling. God! You are so beautiful even in that silly hat with its white feathers." He kissed her again, this time hard, and quick.

Fortune laughed up at him. "This hat is all the fashion in London now. I shall be the envy of every lady in the colony."

"Come into the house, my love," he entreated her, taking her by the hand.

They entered the dwelling so Fortune might inspect it. She was somewhat taken aback to find that inside the walls were rough wood with mud set between the boards to help keep out the wind and rain. However, there was a center hallway that ran the length of the building. The floors were unfinished wooden boards. Thank heaven she had brought India carpets with her, Fortune thought. On the left side of the hallway was their bedchamber. On the right side was a salon. Behind their bedchamber was a tiny second bedchamber, access to which could only be gained through their room. Then running across the entire back of the house and at the end of the hallway was a large keeping room off of which, and almost as an afterthought, were the buttery and pantry.

"The walls have to be plastered at once," Fortune said firmly. "It will be much too cold in winter for Aine, and for me. The floors must be sanded and polished. Where is the furniture I brought with me?"

" 'Tis in the salon but for the bed which I have already set up," he told her, a meaningful look in his eye.

Fortune blushed, but it was a blush of pleasure, and of anticipation. If her husband was eager for her, she was equally eager for him. "The furniture will remain where it is until we plaster the walls. It will not look suitable against the rough boards."

"We will begin tomorrow before the summer damp sets in," he promised. "Come, and meet the house servants," he said, and they walked back to the room where three women were waiting for them.

One was plump and smiling with twinkling brown eyes. This was Dolly, who would watch over Aine. Fortune liked her at once. She curtsied to Fortune very politely.

"Do you know how old you are, Dolly?" Fortune asked her.

"I was born in the year they tried to blow up the Parliament," Dolly answered. "I don't hold with such things, m'lady."

Dolly would be thirty then. "Good," Fortune said, and her own voice was filled with laughter. "I don't hold with such things either. Will you mind having more than one bairn to look after? I plan on having more, and for now you will also have to watch over my Rois's lad. He is two days younger than my daughter. They can both walk and are inclined to get into mischief."

"I can manage," Dolly replied. "Had two of my own before the sickness took them, and my man in the prison."

Fortune felt tears spring into her eyes, and she reached out and comfortingly touched Dolly's hand. Their eyes met in a moment of understanding, and Fortune smiled at the woman.

"Here is Mrs. Hawkins, my darling. Without her we would not eat half as well as we do," Kieran said.

Fortune turned her attention to a tall, big-boned woman, who curtsied to her. "I can see how well fed my husband is, Mrs. Hawkins. I am grateful for your obvious talents."

Mrs. Hawkins smiled, and her teeth were every bit as big as the rest of her. "Thank ye, m'lady. I've a nice big turkey roasting on the spit for yer dinner, and I'm happy to serve ye."

"And this is Comfort Rogers, who keeps our house for us," Kieran said. "She had a bad fright this morning."

"So I have been told," Fortune replied dryly, looking over the bondwoman with a critical eye. Where the other two women were older, Comfort Rogers was barely out of her childhood, and she was very pretty with sandy-colored hair, and blue eyes. "Do you know your age, Comfort?" Fortune was frankly quite curious. The wench had a sly look about her.

"I be born in the year the old queen died, or so I was told," Comfort Rogers said. "Me mam died with the eighth baby, and me dad run off soon after. I be the oldest, and was transported for stealing bread to feed me brothers and sisters."

"What happened to them?" Fortune asked the girl.

Comfort shrugged. "Don't know," the girl said, seemingly unconcerned.

"And don'tcare," Fortune heard Mrs. Hawkins mutter under her breath.

"You will not wander into the woods again, Comfort?" Fortune fixed a stern gaze on the girl.

Comfort didn't answer. She just stared at Fortune.

"You have not answered me, Comfort," her mistress said.

"Didn't mean to get lost," Comfort replied. "I was looking for berries for Master Kieran's breakfast."

"Do not go into the woods again unless you have someone with you who can find their way back to the house," Fortune said firmly.

"You can't tell me what to do," Comfort said boldly. "Only the master can give me orders."

Before Kieran might remonstrate with the girl Mrs. Hawkins whacked her hard on her bottom with a large wooden spoon. "Mind yer manners, ye little London trull. This be the mistress of the house, and the house belongs to her, and all in it. It is she who will tell ye what to do, and ye will do it, Comfort Rogers, else she sell yer bond elsewhere, which I'm thinking would be a good idea." She turned to Fortune. "She can clean, I'll give her that, but she has no respect for her betters, m'lady. Didn't learn it in her own home, if indeed she ever had a home, and a mam she remembers."

"Master! Ohhh, master," Comfort howled, and flung herself at Kieran, clinging to him. "Don't let her send me away! Please don't!" She turned her head to look at Fortune.

"Now, now, lass, just do your work, and mind my good lady wife," Kieran said, "and we'll have no problems. Mrs. Hawkins knows the lay of the land. The house is indeed my lady's. Your loyalty should be first with your mistress." Kieran patted the girl on the shoulder, and untangled her from his person.

Fortune slipped her arm through her husband's. "You will call us when dinner is ready," she said to Mrs. Hawkins, ignoring Comfort.

"Yes, m'lady," came the prompt reply.

"Dolly, follow along, and come meet the children," Fortune said.

"Cow!" Comfort said when her master and mistress had gone.

"Ye'd best behave, wench. Her ladyship will be patient to a point, but then ye'll find yerself in a kettle of hot water. The master ain't for you, and he ain't never going to be," Mrs. Hawkins said.

"If she really loved him she would have come with him when he arrived in Mary's Land," Comfort said. "It's been almost two years since they've been together. Why didn't she come sooner if she loved him? Do you see how he looks at me? He wants me. I knows men."

Mrs. Hawkins sniffed scornfully. "Yer a fool, Comfort Rogers. The master don't look at you in any special way, if indeed he has looked at you at all. Her ladyship didn't come at first because she was with child. Then Governor Calvert ordered that no more women and children come until there was decent shelter for them. We had no choice in the matter being bondservants, but the master wanted her ladyship and his babe safe." She smiled slyly. "There'll be another babe born in this house within a year, I can tell you. Tonight, and for many nights to come, master will be plowing a good furrow with his lady."

Comfort glared at the older woman. "I hate you," she said.

Mrs. Hawkins cackled, pleased to have tweaked the uppity wench's temper. The girl was trouble, and had been from the start. Sadly the poor master couldn't see it, but then men were never very clever where women were concerned. But the mistress had seen it right away. Comfort Rogers would not get her own way with the master now.

Dolly and the children took to one another almost at once, leaving Rois free to help her mistress unpack a few things.

"I'll live out of the trunks until we get the plaster done, and the furniture properly placed," Fortune told her serving woman. "Let's go and see the cottage Kevin has built for you."

Rois's new home was located within sight of Fortune's Fancy. It had two rooms, and a loft. The floor was packed dirt. There were two fireplaces and three windows covered with oilpaper, each with its own shutter. A small dormer window had been installed in the loft. The heavy wooden door was hung with stout iron hinges. Rois walked about her new home, well-pleased, nodding at the small brick oven built into the side of the main fireplace, and the iron pot arm that could be swung about above the iron grate. The cottage, however, was empty for Kevin had not dared to place his wife's furniture which stood out in the yard.

"Let's bring it inside," Fortune suggested. "You can't leave it out in the night air." She picked up a small wooden chair.

"Oh, m'lady, you shouldn't be doing that," Rois cried.

Fortune smiled at her servant. "And who else is there to do it if we don't, Rois? I haven't been raised to be so fine a lady that I can't bring a small chair into a house. Come on!"

Working together the two women lugged several chairs, a trestle table, and a wooden settle into the main room of the cottage. Then they brought in the bed with its head, foot, and rope springs. Looking for his wife, Kieran Devers saw what the two women were doing. Calling to Kevin, they joined their wives, putting the bed together, bringing in the mattress and featherbed, as well as Brendan's large oaken cradle, which was set by the small hearth in what was to be the bedchamber.

Suddenly Rois stopped, and looking distressed said, "What am I to cook for dinner? I have no pots unpacked yet, or food to feed us."

"You'll eat with us," Fortune said quietly. "Mrs. Hawkins said she was roasting a turkey."

"But, m'lady, it isn't proper that we sit at table with our betters," Rois worried. "What would yer mam say? What would my grandmam say for that matter? It isn't right."

"Rois," Fortune said patiently, "this isn't England, or Scotland, or Ireland; and Fortune's Fancy certainly isn't a castle, or the fine mansion it will be one day. This is Mary's Land. I will wager my husband hasn't been sitting in isolated splendor all these months at his meals. He's eaten with Kevin, and whoever else came to table." She looked to Kieran, and he nodded. "You see," Fortune said. "Now, no nonsense about it. In time I'll have an elegant room for dining, but for now it is the keeping room for all."

Mrs. Hawkins had roasted a large bird that she served with yams that had been baked in the coals, new peas, fresh bread, butter, and cheese. Afterward there was a dessert made of dried apples and honey. Fortune ordered that a small barrel of October ale that she had transported be broached for them to enjoy. The four bondmen sitting at the far end of the trestle, thanked her. They had not tasted good English beer in a long time. The two mothers cut tiny pieces of turkey to feed their children along with mashed yams, and bits of bread and cheese. Both Aine and Brendan already had a few teeth, and were eager to use them. Dolly proved most helpful, giving her mistress and Rois opportunity to eat while she kept the two little ones amused. Comfort Rogers, however, did not sit at the trestle for Mrs. Hawkins had her busy helping to serve the meal.

"When do I get to eat?" Comfort whined. "There'll be nothing left by the time they finish."

"If there's no turkey, you can have a nice bowl of corn mush," Mrs. Hawkins said cheerfully. "It'll fill you up right enough."

The meal over, the bondmen departed for their quarters in the barn. Kevin picked up Brendan, who was already half asleep, and putting an arm about Rois headed for their cottage.

"I'll put the wee mistress to bed, m'lady," Dolly said. "She's asleep already, bless her."

"Thank you," Fortune said.

Kieran reached out, and took her hand in his. "Come," he said. "I want to show you about before the sun sets."

They walked out, and Fortune saw that the house was set on a small bluff above the bay. She could see the meadows with the horses, and at least two fields planted with some kind of crop. The air was soft with early summer, and it was so different than England. And far warmer too, she noted.

"I have so many questions," she said. "What are we growing in those fields?"

"Tobacco," he told her. "It's an excellent cash crop for us, and we need it for Mary's Land is not quite the civilized society it will be one day. The horses we raise are not the sort to pull wagons, but rather the kind a gentleman or a gentlewoman would ride, or race. Perhaps we shall sell some of our animals into Virginia, but not yet."

"Are we growing food?" she asked him.

"Aye, for by Mary's Land law we must. There are three crops the Indians have introduced us to besides corn. There are beans, squash, and pumpkins. And we have found our seed grows in this soil. Peas, carrots, beets, marrows. And native yams, of course. 'Tis a bounteous land."

"When we rebuild the house with brick," Fortune said, "it must face the bay. The view is so beautiful. I have never before seen anything like it." She turned, and looked up at him. "Thank you, for our home, Kieran."

"I have missed you so very much," he said softly, his fingers touching her face gently. "How many nights I lay awake longing for you, Fortune, wondering if this place we have come to would suit you as it suits me. Can you be happy here in Mary's Land, so far from your people?"

"You are my people," she told him. "You, and Aine, and the other children we shall have. Aye, I will miss my family, but as long as we are together I can bear it. As for this place, it is where I belong. Where you belong. I felt it as we sailed up the bay from the sea to St. Mary's Town. I knew it deep within me. This land called us, Kieran."

The sun was setting behind them, and the stars beginning to come out above them as they walked back to the house hand in hand.

"I am going to have a bath," Fortune announced. "Somewhere among all my possessions is a large oak tub. Have the men find it and fill it for me. It can be set up in our bedchamber. I shall go and find Mistress Hawkins so she will set the water boiling. I haven't had a bath in six weeks, Kieran, and my skin is sticky with the sea wind, and the salt. I must have a bath. And then"-she smiled at him seductively, and knowingly-"we will have to become reacquainted, sir."

He grinned happily at her. "I'll see the tub is found, madame. I may even join you, or play the maid, whichever will please you."

Fortune laughed happily. It was beginning to feel as if they had never been apart, and she could see from the eager look in his eyes that he felt the same way too.

The tub was found, and set up in the bedchamber. Buckets of water were brought to fill it. Finally they were alone. A small fire burned in the corner fireplace for the evening air had turned chill. The curtains were drawn. The candles flickered softly. Kieran knelt before his wife who sat on the edge of their bed. He pulled her boots off, and then rolled her stockings down her legs, remembering first to slide the rosetted garters off. Fortune stood, and turned her back to him. He unlaced her bodice as she undid the tabs holding her skirts up. The skirts and bodice were carefully laid aside upon a chair.

Fortune now stood facing him in her chemise and petticoats. The petticoats were swiftly discarded. Raising her arms she gathered up her flaming red hair, and pinned it atop her head. He could see the outline of her breasts as she performed this simple task, and felt his desire rising. Reaching out he deliberately began to undo the narrow pink ribbons holding the halves of the chemise together. When the fragile cambric garment was undone at last, he pushed it over her shoulders so that it fell to the floor. Then he stepped back, and breathed a sigh of pure pleasure.

"God's blood, lass, you are surely the most beautiful woman I have ever known." His two hands clasping themselves about her waist he lifted her up slowly, lowering her just enough so he might kiss her moss rose nipples.

"I must bathe," she protested softly.

His tongue began to lick at her flesh. "You're salty," he said with a small chuckle. Then he ceased his teasing, and set her down in her tub. Kneeling by her side he took up the washing cloth, and soaping it began to smooth it over her back and shoulders, using his big hand as a cup to rinse her. Then one arm. The cloth slid down the silken skin from neck to hand. He rinsed her, and kissed each fingertip. The second arm was identically served, but this time he sucked on her fingers slowly, and with deliberate meaning.

"You are a poor maid," she said low. "You have washed neither my neck, or my ears, Kieran Devers."

In reply he bent and placed a kiss on the nape of her neck before running the soapy cloth over it. "You have always had the most graceful neck, and tempting nape, madame," he murmured. The hand holding the cloth dipped below the water, surfaced, was wrung out, and then gently scoured each small ear, the lobe of which he kissed as he finished.

The cloth was moistened, and squeezed out again. He soaped it lavishly, and wiped it across her chest, sliding beneath the water to cleanse her ripe breasts, teasing the nipples with the flannel cloth until they puckered and thrust forward in the warm water. "Stand up," he said in a thick voice.

"I can do the rest," she assured him. Her heart was beating wildly. The look in his eyes was so passionate.

"Stand up!" he repeated through gritted teeth.

Fortune stood.

From his kneeling position he almost looked like a supplicant at the foot of a goddess, and he felt like one. He had promised her he would be faithful, and he had been. He had not lain with any woman since he had last lain with his wife. His beautiful, seductive, lush wife. Kieran was almost trembling with anticipation. His manhood was already rock hard in his breeches with his desire for Fortune. He wondered if she felt the same way, and looked up into her face.

When their eyes met Fortune felt the prudently banked fires in her loins spring up and threaten to suffocate her in the conflagration. She could actually feel her nipples thrusting and tingling with anticipation. Her legs felt weak, and yet she stood straight as the cloth laved gently over her belly, and down each shapely limb. Her blue-green eyes never left his dark green ones. She could not have, even if her very life depended upon it, looked away. The look overwhelmed her with its hungry craving, its intense need, its blazing desire.

His finger spread her nether lips open to his view. For a long, hot moment he stared at the sweet flesh filling his gaze. Then the cloth swept over it, washing, teasing, making her long for him even as he longed for her. She whimpered as he leaned forward and began to tongue her. She felt heat licking at her center of being. "Kieran!" She half-sobbed his name as his hands cupped her buttocks drawing her into a most intimate conjunction with his lips.

The taste of her! The scent of her! It maddened him with lust. How many months? How many years since he had last held her in his arms? Had made passionate love to her? He rubbed his cheek against her belly, his fingers digging into the flesh of her derriere as he forced back the lust that threatened to consume him. He wanted it perfect tonight of all nights. They had waited for so long, and now within their own home he would take her slowly, and with love. He stood.

Fortune's fingers clumsily began to unlace his shirt. Her hands were practically shaking in their eagerness. She pushed the fabric from him, her lips touching his heated skin. She felt a chill as the night air touched her wet body, and remembered she was standing in her tub. Bending she kissed his chest and belly frantically. She was aching to possess him. This love play was utter torture. Her fingers fumbled at his breeches, and he laughed, helping her, but then she swore impatiently.

"You've still got your damned boots on," she said, straightening up, and glaring at him.

In reply he pulled her close again, but this time his fingers sought her out. "You're an eager wench," he said softly, and two of his fingers pushed themselves into her sheath.

Fortune shuddered with pure pleasure. "Ahhh, yes!" she sighed.

The fingers thrust deliberately, tauntingly into her fevered body, and Fortune squirmed frantically to make the conjunction between them even closer than it was, her fingers tangling themselves in his dark hair, pulling at it to force his head down, and then their lips met in a hungry kiss, their tongues frantically playing. She shivered as a frisson of pleasure was released by his teasing fingers.

"There, you delightfully greedy little bitch, that should hold you for a moment or two while I divest myself of the rest of my clothing." The fingers slid from her body, and looking into her sloed eyes he put them into his mouth, murmuring appreciatively. "You taste quite delicious, my darling lass."

She couldn't move for the longest time. She stood there in the warm water of her tub enjoying the wonderful feelings of pure pleasure that he had unleashed in her. It had been too long. But it would never be that long again, the voice in her head assured her.

His back to her, he drew off the remainder of his garments. "Now, wife," he said to her, "it is your turn to bathe me."

"Kieran, I am dying for you," she pleaded with him.

"As I am for you," he replied, and turned about.

She moaned lustfully at the sight of his manhood, fully engorged with his hunger for her, thrusting out from its nest of black curls.

"You must learn the fine art of compromise, Fortune," he told her, climbing into the tub. Seating himself carefully, he pulled her down.

Fortune gasped with both surprise and pleasure to find herself impaled on his love lance as he seated her opposite him.

"Now, my love," he said calmly, handing her the flannel washing cloth, "wash me." The dark green eyes gazed at her.

She could hardly breathe as she attempted to ply the soft cloth over his chest. The sensation of him filling her was so terribly acute. He throbbed with desire within her hot, tight sheath. She ached. She was both hot and cold at the same time. Finally, drawing a deep breath, she washed him with an almost grim determination, leaning over his shoulders to wipe at his broad back. The slightest movement she made was so intense that she was close to shrieking her need for him, particularly when he began to fondle her breasts, playing in leisurely fashion with the sensitive globes, tweaking at the nipples until she begged him to cease, or she would shatter into a thousand pieces.

In response he lifted her off his love lance, and stood, drawing her up with him. "I remember another time like this," he said softly as he stepped from the water, and drew her out as well. Taking the large towel on the rack by the fire he dried her as she frantically took the edge of the towel to dry him. "Enough," he said finally, and pushed her onto the bed.

Fortune didn't need further instructions. She opened herself to him immediately, crying out with undisguised pleasure as he entered her with a single, smooth movement. "Yes!" she almost wept. "Yes!"

It was almost too much. When her legs wrapped themselves about him Kieran shuddered with delight. He delved deeply into her soft welcoming passage, thrusting again, and again, and again. The walls of her love channel closed about his manhood, tightening, releasing, tightening, releasing until he could no longer bear it, and his long pent-up lust for Fortune exploded in a rush of boiling love juices so profuse that she could not contain it all, and it oozed from her body to dampen the lavender-scented sheets. "Ilove you!" he cried out to her.

"As I love you," she sobbed. "Oh, my darling, never leave me again. Until this moment I did not fully realize how desperately I had missed you, and how much I needed you, Kieran."

They kissed hungrily, passionately, their lips mashing frantically as if they could not get enough of each other.

"I want more," he growled in her ear.

"Oh, please, yes!" Fortune answered him, as their bodies uncoupled for a short time. "More, and more and more!"

He laughed, and brushed a lock of her hair that had come undone in their passionate encounter. "For some reason, my love, I do not find that prospect unpleasant. We shall never be parted again, Fortune."

"Never!" she agreed.

^{Chapter 18}

The walls of Fortune's Fancy were plastered. The floors were sanded, and then polished. Tapestries were hung. The India carpets were laid. The furniture Fortune had brought from England was set about. The Irish colonists were invited to a celebration at Lammastide by their sponsor, Kieran Devers. They came to eat, and to drink, and to dance. They stood solemnly as Father White, Leonard Calvert's Jesuit priest, blessed Fortune's Fancy. The feeling of community was strong.

Mistress Happeth Jones, the physician, brought Fortune a special gift of two rosebushes. "I brought a dozen from Ireland," she explained, "and they have taken to this climate well. Come and see me soon, m'lady, and I will give you a strengthening potion for you and the babe you are now carrying. There will be a number of births come next spring." Her brown eyes twinkled behind her spectacles. "It would seem all the husbands were happy to see their wives again, m'lady."

Fortune laughed happily. "Say nothing to Kieran yet. I am going to tell him today. My Rois is also expecting. Isn't Mary's Land the most wonderful place, Happeth Jones?" She was happy. She could not ever remember being happier in her entire life.

This New World of theirs seemed blessed. Its earth was fertile beyond measure. In the fields the Oronoco tobacco grew. The large dark leaves with their pointed tips, like fox ears, would soon be ready to harvest. In the gardens the corn was high, and the vines from the squash and pumpkins grew together so thickly that you could not see the earth beneath them. The beans, growing on their poles, had produced bounteously all summer long. Everything grew well. The seeds from the carrots, beets, and peas had produced generously, not just in crops, but in seed for the year to come. The lettuces did better in the spring, and they would grow more come the autumn. The cabbages were already green and round. They grew yams, and a small crop of what was called potatoes. These, they had learned from the Indians, could be kept in cold storage most of the winter, and provided tasty nourishment when roasted in the coals, or boiled.

In the forests around them turkeys and deer were plentiful. The bays were filled with ducks and geese. The waters alive with fish of all kinds, as well as shellfish like oysters and clams. There were crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters. Kieran saw that each of his people donated a portion of their harvest to the general storehouses. The rest they stored themselves. The Indians showed them how to grind the corn into a flour which could be used to make bread and cereal.

Comfort Rogers did not like the Indians. She said she was afraid of them, afraid of their curiosity about her sandy-colored hair. Fortune, on the other hand, was not afraid. She willingly let down her long red hair for inspection, snipping tiny bits of it to give the Indian women for souvenirs. They rewarded her with a new name, which translated into English meant Touched-by-Fire.

"You'll wake up some morning with your scalp missing," Comfort said meanly to her mistress, in an attempt to frighten her.

Fortune laughed. "They are only curious," she answered. "After all, their women are all dark-haired. They have never seen hair like ours that is light, or red. Why do you fear them?"

"Dirty creatures," Comfort replied meanly. "And they look at me outta the corner of their devil's eyes. I know what they're thinking. They're wondering what it would be like to be on top of me, swiving me, hearing me scream as they hads their way with me."

"They have beautiful women of their own," Fortune responded. "I think, girl, you have allowed your imagination to run away with you. I believe we must find you a husband, Comfort. You are obviously ripe for bedding. Perhaps a strong man in your bed would make you feel safer."

"Already picked my man out," Comfort said boldly.

"Have you?" Fortune was not surprised. "Who is he?"

"Master is the man for me. You'll not be able to live in this New World long. You'll go home to England soon enough, and then I'll have the master for my man. You're too much of a lady to survive here. You're a soft, pampered bitch, and you don't deserve him, but I do. And when I gets him between my legs he'll forget you right enough!"

Fortune slapped the girl hard, astounded by her brazen words. She had known that Comfort had a tendre for Kieran, but thought it just a youthful infatuation. After all he had bought her bond, and treated her with kindness and decency. "Mary's Land is my home, Comfort, and my husband will never be your man. Nor will he ever leave me under any circumstances. We have a child. I am expecting another. I think I must speak to the master about you. Perhaps you would be happier elsewhere than at Fortune's Fancy."

"He won't sell my bond to another," Comfort said smugly. "The master likes me. I see how he looks at me even if you don't."

"Go and polish the furniture in the salon," Fortune snapped. "It is full of dust, and you have been neglecting your duties."

That night as she lay in Kieran's arms she said to him the words he had been longing to hear. "I am with child again, my love."

"Will you give me a son this time?" he asked, as if she could actually guarantee his wish.

"Aye," she said blandly. " 'Tis a lad I carry this time. I know it in my heart. It is not as it was with Aine."

"When he is born," Kieran said, "I shall give you the moon, and the stars, and anything else your heart desires, Fortune mine."

"I should like a down payment on your rash promise," she half-teased him.

"Name your wish, wife," he urged her.

"I want you to sell Comfort's bond to another," Fortune replied.

He was only half surprised by her request. "What has the wench done to displease you, Fortune? I know she is infatuated with me, but she's still just a sixteen-year-old girl, and her life has been so hard. Surely you're not jealous, sweetheart?" He caressed her breasts lovingly.

"There is nothing girlish about Comfort," Fortune said. "She is as old as Eve, and has the cold heart of a whore. Do you know what she had the temerity to say to me today?"

He was almost afraid to ask, but he did, and was somewhat shocked by the answer.

"She has not been doing her housework, and Mrs. Hawkins says she will not help in the kitchen unless absolutely driven to it. She disappears for hours on end, and no one seems to know where she is. She is a discordant note in our home, and I don't want her here, Kieran. I am already affected by the new life growing inside of me. I cannot, I do not, want to cope with the wench."

"It will not be easy to find someone to purchase her bond," he said thoughtfully. "I bought her in Virginia, and the price I paid for her included the cost of her passage. When her term of indenture is up, I must give her fifty acres of land, an ox, a gun, two hoes, a skirt and waist of penistone, shoes, stockings, a blue apron, a linen smock, two linen caps, and three barrels of corn. I don't know if there is anyone here who will have her."

"Then take her back to Virginia, and sell her," Fortune said irritably. "Or better yet, we'll give her a purse, and send her back to England on the Cardiff Rose next time she returns. Who is to know she was transported for theft? She certainly won't tell them else she be thrown back in Newgate. With a purse she can set herself up in a little shop, or find a husband to quell that itch that is consuming her."

"Let me see if I can find someone to purchase her bond from me," Kieran said. "I dislike losing the entire investment, and she has worked off two years of her bond already. I'll not get full price for her, Fortune."

"I don't care if you get nothing for her. If someone can be found to take her, sign her bond over to them gratis. I just want her out of our house!" Fortune said.

"When the harvest is in, I promise you," he said.

The tobacco was cut in September and hung in the curing house to dry. Then it was tied into bundles, and packed into hogsheads for shipment to England on the Cardiff Rose. The O'Malley-Small trading company now had a small investment in tobacco which was to prove highly profitable. The Cardiff Rose would also take barrels of corn to England. The colony was growing more than it needed, and a cash crop was always welcome. The garden crops were gathered in, the root crops and the cabbages stored in the cellar for winter use. The men went hunting for deer and fowls to be hung and kept for winter's meat. The Highlander returned with three milk cows, two team of oxen, two dozen hens, and a rooster.

Around them were signs of the coming winter. The geese were flocking in great cackling groups that filled the waters of the bay. The trees were turning colors. The maples gold and red. The oaks red and russet. The beeches and birches a wonderful rich gold, almost the same color as the dried tobacco. And Fortune began to bloom with the evidence of her coming child as did her serving woman, Rois.

One afternoon as the two women sat outside the house sewing new garments for their children Comfort Rogers came into view. There was an almost slatternly look about her today. There were pine needles in her hair, and she had a look about her that caused Rois to say, "I wonder who she's been lying with, m'lady."

"God's nightshirt!" Fortune swore. "If she gets herself a big belly Kieran will never be able to get rid of her, the little bitch!"

"Is he going to sell her bond?" Rois asked. "I'm glad! You should see her eyeing my Kevin. Rubs up against him every chance she gets. I'd like to scratch her eyes out, but I'd not make a scene and embarrass you, m'lady. I'll not be sorry to see her go! The bondmen gossip to the other men, and 'tis said for a ha'penny, Comfort Rogers will spread her legs without argument."

Fortune closed her eyes, and swore softly to herself. Then opening them she looked directly at Rois and asked, "Why didn't you tell me this before? The girl is, as I suspected, a trull. We have to get rid of her, and the sooner the better!"

"I can't find a buyer to take her bond," Kieran admitted to his wife when pressed about the situation that evening.

"The wench is lying on her back for any and all, Rois tells me," Fortune said angrily.

"I know," he admitted unhappily. "That is why I can't get anyone to take her bond. No decent woman will have the wench in her house. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I only meant to give you servants as you have always had. I didn't want you to be unhappy in Mary's Land."

Shaking her head ruefully Fortune cuddled her husband on her breasts. "What a coil," she said. "Well, there is no other choice. We will have to send her back to England with a purse to keep her. I cannot have her whoring from our home. It will bring us into disrepute if we appear to be allowing it, and how can we stop her short of shackling her?" She paused. "Perhaps we should so she can't run off all the time where we cannot find her. I think we should have her whipped, and put in the stocks. That will show everyone that we do not condone her bad behavior. Then we will shackle her ankles so she cannot roam."

"It's harsh," he said, "but I agree. The Cardiff Rose is back one final time this year. When she sails for England Comfort Rogers will be aboard her, I promise you, Fortune. We can't be bothered with such a wayward wench."

Fortune called her servants together the following morning. "I am well aware," she began, "of the bad behavior of some of you. You are put on notice that I will not tolerate it any longer. I will sell the bond of any whose behavior is not Christian, or proper." She looked sternly at the four bondmen, who, though they professed the Puritan faith, had been as dissolute as anyone else. "Comfort Rogers, you are not to leave the house without my permission. Do you understand me?"

Comfort glared sullenly at her mistress, but was silent.

Fortune did not press the issue. The decision had been made concerning Comfort's fate.

"About time," Mrs. Hawkins said to Dolly, the nursemaid. "I wouldn't be surprised to see her gone, and sooner than later."

"Do you really think mistress will sell her off?" Dolly asked.

"If they can find someone to take the jade," Mrs. Hawkins said. "I'm sick unto death of hearing how master looks at her. The wench needs a good beating, I tells you."

"She probably wouldn't mind if master administered it," Dolly giggled. "Owww!" She rubbed her arm where Mrs. Hawkins had smacked her with a hard wooden spoon. "What was that for?"

"You mind yer tongue, Dolly," the cook warned. "The mistress loves her man dearly, and he, her. I'll not listen to such talk, and shame on you who are in charge of the little ones."

"I didn't mean anything," Dolly said, stricken.

"I know," Mrs. Hawkins soothed her, confident she had restored order. "Now be a good lass, and run along. I've a brace of ducks to clean and stuff for tonight's dinner."

Standing in the shadow of the keeping room's outside door, Comfort had listened to the two women. Mrs. Hawkins was an old cow, and Dolly too soft and stupid. When I'm mistress of this house, Comfort thought, I'll send them both packing. I'll be the one selling their bonds. Master Kieran will never send me away. He loves me except he can't admit it because of her. His hoity-toity lady wife with her flaming pate, and white, white skin. Ihate her! What is it the Indians call her? Touched-by-Fire. That's it! I wonder if some big buck with his red-brown body would like rummaging between her milky thighs. Ohhh, she'd scream, she would. If she weren't around Master Kieran would turn to me. Iknow he would! Says I can't leave the house without her fine ladyship's permission, does she? I'll show her! I'll go where I like, and when I like. I'll have no bitch like my old mistress back in London ordering me about. I showed that one, and I'll show this one!

She needed to get away from the house. She needed a man stuffing her full with his want, but now the menservants would be chary of her, Comfort realized. Damn her ladyship! What difference is it to her that the men were swiving me? I wasn't hurting nobody. Ohh, it's all right if her, with her belly, gets serviced, but not poor me. Well, I'll fix her soon enough, the bitch!

"Mistress Fortune." Prosper, one of the bondmen, was speaking.

Fortune looked up from the chair before the house where she and Rois were sewing infant garments. "Yes, Prosper, what is it?"

" 'Tis Comfort, yer ladyship. She's going off into the woods again. We saw her from the fields."

Fortune jumped up. "That damned girl! She'll get lost again."

"Nay, yer ladyship," the bondman said. "Comfort knows the woods hereabouts better than any. Every bit as good as the Indians."

"Does she?" This was rather interesting news. Was it possible that Comfort had deliberately pretended to be lost the day they arrived? "Show me where she is," Fortune said. "Rois, go and tell Kieran I have gone after the troublesome bitch, and that tomorrow she goes into St. Mary's to the stocks, and for a whipping."

"She'll come back, m'lady," Rois said. "Don't go after the wench."

"She's deliberately disobeyed me, and in front of the others," Fortune said. "If I do not fetch her back myself, I shall lose control of my household." Turning Fortune followed the bondman.

He led her to the edge of the tobacco fields, pointing out the path that Comfort had taken. "I'll go with you, mistress," he said.

"Nay," Fortune replied. "She will not have gotten far, and I want to bring her back myself. Cut me that switch, Prosper."

He obeyed, handing it to her with a small grin.

Stepping into the woods Fortune followed the barely visible path. About her the leaves were brilliant with their late October color. They fell silently around her, and yet the path seemed clear enough for a distance. Ahead of her she could hear Comfort singing a little ditty, and recognized the tune as "The Miller of Dee." Fortune increased her pace, but she could not seem to catch up with the serving girl. Then she suddenly realized that she hadn't heard Comfort's voice in the past few minutes. Where had the damned girl gotten to? Fortune wondered.

Comfort could hear someone following her. Was it one of the men? she thought excitedly. She hid herself in the brush long enough to discover her pursuer. Seeing Fortune picking her way through the undergrowth Comfort felt a surge of disappointment. Then an idea struck her. She began to sing again, leading her fine ladyship on deeper and deeper into the forest. She crossed a small stream, and hid herself again, watching as Fortune forded the small watercourse, and continued onward. With a smile of triumph Comfort turned back. Her rival had chosen her own fate. She would soon discover herself lost, and she would not be able to find her way back out of the forest. But I will be there for the master, Comfort considered, smiling to herself as she walked out of the woods, and across the fields to the house.

Fortune suddenly realized she couldn't hear Comfort's voice anymore. She also could not hear the sound of footsteps padding ahead of her. She stopped. All around her the forest was thick with trees and other growth. I have to go back, Fortune thought to herself. She turned about, and attempted to retrace her footsteps, but while the path had seemed so obvious going into the woods, it was not as definite now that she needed to find her way out. Ahead she heard the sound of water. The stream she had crossed! But as she came upon it she wasn't certain it was the same stream. The one she had crossed was silent-running. This one sang and chattered as it tumbled over its streambed of rocks.

Panic began to set in. I'm lost! she thought, frightened. Fortune stood stock-still. She was suddenly afraid to move in any direction lest she become even more lost. I haven't been walking that long. I can't be that far from home. But which direction do I take? Oh, God! I don't know! She began to cry. She was lost in this New World forest, and no one was ever going to find her. Aine would be orphaned, and the son she was certain she carried in her womb now would die with her. Crumpling to the soft floor of the forest she wept herself into sleep.

"Touched-by-Fire, awaken," she heard a deep voice calling her.

Fortune awoke, and scrambling to her feet found herself face to face with a tall, elderly Indian. She gasped.

"Do not be afraid, Touched-by-Fire. I am Many Moons, the medicine man of the Wicocomoco."

"You speak English?" Fortune was amazed.

He smiled a small smile at her. "Your medicine woman, Glass Eyes, taught me, as I have taught her our tongue."

Glass Eyes? Of course! Happeth Jones with her spectacles! "I am lost, Many Moons. I followed a disobedient servant into the forest, and became lost. Can you guide me back to my home?"

He nodded. "It is the girl with the corn-colored hair you followed? She is a very bad person, Touched-by-Fire. She has brought sickness to several of our young men who were tempted by her. She let them use her as a man will use a woman. Then they became sick."

"Her name is Comfort, although she is anything but," Fortune said, walking by the medicine man's side. "My husband is going to send her away. She claims to be afraid of your people. I am sorry she has brought illness to your men. Perhaps Mistress Jones, Glass Eyes, can help you. I am grateful that you found me, Many Moons. I do not think I could have found my way out of the forest without your help." Fortune could see the trees thinning, and past them the tobacco fields. The sun was close to setting. She had obviously been in the forest most of the day. She was very lucky, she realized.

"Fortune! Fortune!"

Her name was being called. "I'm here," she cried back, and then she exited the woods, running into Kieran's open arms.

"I thought I had lost you," he said, kissing her hungrily.

"You almost did, but thanks to Many Moons-" She turned. "He's gone! Oh, Kieran, I wanted you to thank him, too. The Wicocomoco medicine man who is Mistress Jones's friend found me, and led me out of the forest. Do you know what the Indians call her? Glass Eyes!"

"Why did you go into the forest?" he asked her as they turned to walk back to the house.

"I scolded the servants this morning for their behavior, and then I told Comfort she was not to leave the house without my permission," Fortune said. "Of course she did, deliberately disobeying me. Prosper saw her crossing the fields into the woods. He came to tell me. I followed the wench, but she must have discovered I was coming after her. She disappeared, and I couldn't see or hear her. Then I realized I was lost. I wandered about a bit, gave in to a bout of vapors, and then Many Moons found me," Fortune concluded breathlessly. "I'm starving, Kieran!"

"Mrs. Hawkins will have dinner ready soon. Rois came and told me you had gone into the forest. By the time I learned where you had gone, you had vanished. I skirted the edge of the woods all afternoon calling you. We were just about to send to the Indian village, and ask for their help. What the hell was Comfort doing in the forest?"

"She knows it well, I have learned. She is also not one bit afraid of the Indians despite her claim. She's been lying with several young bucks, and has infected them with some sort of disease," Fortune told her husband. "Did Rois say I wanted her sent to St. Mary's tomorrow?"

He nodded "I've shackled her, and put her in the buttery," he told his wife as they entered the house.

"Ohh, m'lady, thank heavens yer back!" Rois cried as she ran to greet her mistress.

"It's all right now, Rois," Fortune assured her serving woman, "and tomorrow we dispose of Comfort Rogers."

"Good riddance!" Rois said bluntly.

In the early morning the weeping Comfort was brought from the buttery, and put into the wagon. Kevin would go with his master to St. Mary's Town. As the vehicle moved off from the house, however, Comfort shrieked irrationally, "He's taking me away, you bitch! We're going to be together, and yer going to be left alone! I knew he wanted me. I knew he loved me, and not you!"

"Bitch!" Rois muttered.

"I feel sorry for her," Fortune replied. "Not so much that I want her about, but I still have pity for her."

In the evening when the men returned, and they were all, servant and master, settled about the trestle in the keeping room, Kieran Devers explained that they had all had a narrow escape. He and Kevin had reached St. Mary's in good time. He had brought the bondwoman before the governor, requesting that she be put in the stocks and whipped for her misbehavior. He was prepared to afterward give her into the keeping of Captain O'Flaherty, to be returned to England.

Comfort was forced screaming into the stocks in the public square, her blouse ripped down its back, and then given ten lashes for her immoral and lewd behavior, as well as her disobedience to her master and mistress. She would remain the day in the stocks, going aboard the ship in late afternoon before the evening tide. Kieran and Kevin having seen the bondwoman properly punished went about the business of seeing the hogsheads of tobacco loaded aboard the Cardiff Rose. Then they went to see Aaron Kira, pleased to learn he had been accepted in St. Mary's, and his money-lending establishment was thriving.

"What do I do with the wench when we get back to England?" Ualtar O'Flaherty asked his cousin's husband when the cargo had been finally loaded, and the three men sat in the captain's cabin eating a meal.

"Give her the purse I gave you, and send her on her way. She doesn't dare go back to her old haunts lest she be caught, and rearrested. She's only served two years of her bond, but we can't sell her bond to anyone, her reputation is so foul. I don't want her around my family. She lured Fortune into the forest, and then left her there, lost. My wife was rescued by one of our Indian allies. Frankly I wouldn't care if you threw her overboard in midocean, Ualtar. It's no more than she deserves, the conniving bitch. Keep her shackled, and under lock and key lest you find her spreading her legs for your crew, and have a mutiny on your hands. She's a wicked bit of goods."

There was a knock on the cabin door, and it opened to reveal the cabin boy. "Gentleman to see Master Devers, sir," he said, and stepped aside to allow the man with him to enter the cabin.

"I am Kieran Devers," and he arose, holding out his hand.

"Anthony Sharpe, Master Devers. You have in your possession a bondwoman named Comfort Rogers?"

"I do, but not for long," Kieran replied.

"I have a warrant for her arrest, sir. She is an impostor, a convicted felon who was due to hang for murder. She switched places with a dead woman in Newgate who was to be transported. No one would have known but that she angered another woman who was also about to be transported. Lay with her man, the bold wench did. Quite a randy lass, I am told," Anthony Sharpe said with a small grin.

"I purchased her bond over two years ago," Kieran said. "Why has it taken so long for her to be claimed by the government?"

"The woman she angered could get no one to listen to her until she got here to the New World. She came later on a different vessel. This woman's master heard the story, believed his bondwoman, and notified the authorities. Then word was sent back to London. A small reward was offered amongst the felons in Newgate, for many of the same people there for debt were still there, for any information as to what had happened to Comfort Rogers. Money do be an excellent restorative of memory, sir. We learned that Comfort Rogers had died, and her identity had been taken by one Jane Gale."

"What did this woman do?" Kieran asked.

"Killed her mistress, she did. Was convinced that her master was mad in love with her, and killed the wife to get at him," came the reply.

"Was he? Did he lead the girl on?" Kieran inquired.

"Nay, sir, 'twas all in the lass's head," Anthony Sharpe said.

"My God, Kieran, you are fortunate she did not kill your wife," Ualtar O'Flaherty said, and then turning to Master Sharpe explained what had happened to his cousin only the day before.

"Aye, sir, your lady is indeed a lucky lass," was the observation.

"The wench is in the stocks," Kieran said. "We were just going to fetch her now." He did not say that he had been planning to return Comfort Rogers, or Jane Gale, or whatever her name was, back to England simply to be rid of her. "What will you do with her?"

"Take her back to England," was the answer. "I'll have to find a ship that will have room for me, and my prisoner."

"I will be leaving tonight with the tide, and I have room for you," Captain O'Flaherty said quickly. "Yer passage will be a free one, Master Sharpe, for my cousin, who is distantly related to the king, would expect me to aid his royal authorities. I'll send some men to fetch the wench from the stocks."

"We'll go with them," Kieran said. "I would, however, like to see your warrant before I leave the ship, Master Sharpe."

"Of course, sir," came the response, and reaching into his doublet he drew forth the parchment, handing it to Kieran.

Accepting the official-looking document, Kieran opened it and read it. It was indeed a warrant for the arrest of the convicted felon, Jane Gale, also known as Comfort Rogers, female, aged sixteen, hair flaxen, eyes blue. Folding the warrant back up Kieran returned it to Master Sharpe, and turned to Captain O'Flaherty. "You have my wife's letter for her mother, the duchess. We will see you in the spring. I hope the tobacco sells well on the London market. Godspeed."

The two men shook hands.

"The family will be delighted to learn of the new bairn," the captain said. "God bless you all Kieran, and my love to Fortune."

"So Ualtar has sailed for England with Comfort Rogers in chains," Fortune said as her husband finished his tale. "God help her."

"You can say that after all the trouble she caused?" he said wonderingly. "Your heart is much too good, sweetheart." The others about the trestle murmured their agreement.

"I am no fool, Kieran, as you know, but see how auspiciously fate has dealt with us. Until we came to Mary's Land each of us was besieged in our own passage through life, and yet we kept moving forward. That was what Comfort Rogers was trying to do. Move forward. Be loved. But, alas, she did not know how. I have been loved my whole life, and you, despite your mother's death knew that your father and siblings loved you, even if your stepmother did not. What kind of a life did that poor creature have, I wonder, that caused her to become so wicked? Babies are born innocent. It takes terrible deeds to turn them into evil people. Aye, she tried to kill me, and to steal my husband, but tonight I am safe at Fortune's Fancy with you by my side, while she is on her way back to England to be hanged. God help her, Kieran. God help her!"

He looked at her with his dark green eyes filled with love and admiration for this woman he had found to be his wife. Lady Fortune Mary Lindley Devers was truly amazing. "I love you," he said. "I loved you yesterday. I love you today, and I will love you forever though time itself ceases to exist. We are home, Fortune. Home in our Mary's Land. Home, and besieged no more!" He stood, drawing her up, and took her into his arms. Then he kissed her with all the passion in his Celtic soul, and Fortune knew he was right. They were home. Home, and besieged no more. It was a good feeling!